(Continued)
TWELVE Great Concertos (Concerti Grossi), of which this is the seventh, were written in a month.
These are not Concertos in the modern meaning, that is, works written for a Soloist and an Orchestra. Handel used an Orchestra of stringed instruments and Harpsichord, and divided it into two groups of players. One group confisted of two Violins and a 'Cello, and the other comprised the remainder of the Orchestra.
These groups are played off one against another, all through the work, having alternate cuts at the music, so to speak ; and sometimes they are combined.
Of his seventh Concerto Grosso we are to have four Movements, the first and third short and slow. the others in varying degrees of liveliness. The last Movement, a Hornpipe, shows that syncopation is no new thing, and demonstrates how delightful it is when used by a real artist as one piquant element in a work, instead of by vulgarians as the sum and substance of their shallow thought.