Water Music, suite of short pieces for small orchestra by German-born English composer George Frideric Handel, known particularly for its highly spirited movements in dance form. Most of the pieces were originally intended for outdoor performance, and the work premiered on a barge on the River Thames, where it provided entertainment for a royal cruise hosted by King George I of England on July 17, 1717. Selections from the suite were published during Handel’s lifetime, but the entire collection did not come into print until 1788, nearly three decades after the composer’s death.