Of course, he was obliged to compose much choral music for the court, too. Following the model of Corelli, Handel also completed two sets of concerti grossi, some of the finest examples of the genre from the late Baroque, an example of which is the Concerto Grosso, Op. There is also the Musick for the Royal Fireworks, composed in 1749 to celebrate the peace of Aix-la-Chappelle, which had been declared the previous year. Throughout his career, Handel continually composed much wonderful instrumental music, including many fine organ concertos, a good amount of keyboard music, and celebratory music such as the suite of airs and dances known as the Water Music, written to accompany a royal barge trip down the Thames in 1717. A potentially embarrassing situation arose for the composer when Queen Anne died in 1714 and was succeeded by King George I - the very Georg of Hanover to whose court Handel had never returned! But relations between the two must have remained amicable, for Handel's royal stipend was doubled before too long, on top of which he was granted another stipend from the Princess of Wales. He remained in England for the rest of his life, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1726 and anglicizing his name to George Frideric Handel. The Queen gave the young composer an annual stipend of £200 in hopes of keeping him in London as court composer. Obtaining permission to return to England in 1712, Handel once again composed several operas as well as some ceremonial music for Queen Anne. He produced an opera to great acclaim in London and, having tasted success, reluctantly returned to Germany. Unhappy with his duties there, however, Handel made a trip later in 1710 to London, where Italian opera was fast becoming all the rage. Upon his return to Germany, Handel became Kapellmeister to the Elector Georg of Hanover. From 1706 to 1710, he sojourned in Italy where he met both Domenico Scarlatti and Arcangelo Corelli, and came under the influence of Italian melody. Drawn to the theater from an early age, Handel went to Hamburg in 1703 and began composing Italian operas. Born in the same year and country as Johann Sebastian Bach, young Georg Friederich Händel (the original German spelling of his name) was playing the violin, harpsichord, oboe, and organ by the age of eleven.
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