Music for the Royal Fireworks
The "British Grenadiers March” is one of the most recognizable and memorable tunes in the world, part of Britain's musical heritage. One of the band's admirers during the 18th century was George Frideric Handel. He demonstrated this by presenting the march from "Scipio" to the regiment before he included it in his opera of that name when it was first performed in 1726. George II gave Handel the task of scoring the "Music for the Royal Fireworks", most commonly performed with strings, for the king's own musicians, who were wind players from his foot guards. Handel would have likely come into contact with musicians from the Grenadier Guards during the first performance at Vauxhall Gardens in 1749.