It just goes to show that you can never judge what any given solver will find simple or obscure. It’s a thankless task, but I’d never give it up.

I’ve always considered myself to be reasonably versed in the classics. (Not well versed but versed.) Yet I’d never heard of “Water Music” by Handel. Your mention of fireworks led me to believe that I’d prolly heard the thing a thousand times yet just never knew the name of it.

So I went to YouTube and, lo and behold, it’s still something I’ve (literally!) never heard of.

Nope. Doesn’t ring a bell.

So, yer right. Or, as my mom would say, Just shows t’go ya.

I’ve always heard that if you have to explain a joke, you’ve already failed, so maybe I shouldn’t bother explaining. However, of all of the theme answers, the one you reference is the one that I thought was most straightforward. Your description of the theme is dead-on, of course — it was a bit obscure but not necessary to getting the theme entries. The clue in question was actually ‘Like “Water Music”‘. A quick search on the Google confirms that, of the 4 million entries for “Water Music”, 500,000 reference Handel directly — it really *is* a quite famous orchestral work. (I had considered instead using ‘Like “Music for the Royal Fireworks”‘, but I worry that Across Lite sometimes gets ugly about displaying long clues.)

It just goes to show that you can never judge what any given solver will find simple or obscure. It’s a thankless task, but I’d never give it up.

I understand HALF PASTEL for [Mixed media portrait?], TAKE A VOWEL for [Perform a game show purchase] and even NEWEL SLANT for [Sign of a decrepit staircase].

But, when the phrase “hand-made” becomes HANDEL-MADE, the clue is [Water music?]. What does water have to do with Handel or the making of his music?