ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Handel's musical response to the completed libretto as he prepared the version that would be premiered 27 February 1740. It is concerned with his musical reactions to specific details of the text — for example, the use of an obbligato horn in No. 13, the aria referring to "the hounds and horn" or the illustration of laughter at the words "and laughter holding both his sides" in No. 6. The chapter aims to deduce some of the ways in which the composer organized his musical settings so as to create a recognizable large-scale structure in a work without a plot, while still preserving the variety of timbres so essential to the listener's enjoyment. Handel responded with a pair of modified da capo arias that significantly raise the musical stakes. The musical parallels are the obbligato instrument — in this case the cello — and the length and technical difficulty of the musical setting.
