It was Keiser who taught him the art of those moving _recitative-ariosi_ with orchestra, which he had already used in _Almira_, and of which, later on, J. S. Bach was to take from him the style. He never ceased to employ it in his London operas, and he gave the form a superb amplitude. They are not merely isolated recitatives or preambles to an extended solo.[314] The story of Cæsar in the third act of _Giulio Cesare, Dall'ondoso periglio_ is one large musical picture, which expresses in its frame a symphonic prelude, a recitative, the two first parts of an air over the symphonic accompaniment of the opening, a second recitative, then the _Da Capo_. The scene of Bajazet's death in the last act of _Tamerlano_ is composed of a series of recitatives with orchestra, and of airs joined together, and passes through all the nuances of feeling, forming from one stage to the other a veritable ladder of life. The scene of Admetes' agony at the opening of the opera of the same name equals in profundity, emotion, and dramatic liberty, the finest recitative scenes of Gluck. The "mad scene" in _Orlando_,[315] and that of Dejanira's despair in the third act of _Hercules_, surpasses them in boldness of realism, and frenetic passion. In the first, burlesque and tragic elements commingle with a truly Shakespearean art. The second is a mighty foaming river, raging with fury and grief. Neither of these two scenes have any analogy in the whole of the musical theatre of the eighteenth century. And _Teseo_, _Rodelinda_, _Alessandro_, _Alcina_, _Semele_, _Joseph_, _Alexander Balus_, _Jephtha_, all present recitative scenes, or combinations in the same scene of recitatives and very free airs, with instrumental interludes, no less original. Finally a sort of presentiment of the _leit-motiv_, and its psychological employment in _Belshazzar_, should be noticed, where certain instrumental phrases and recitatives seem attached to the character of Nitocris.[316] * * * * * The study of Handel's recitatives and airs raises perhaps the greatest problem of artistic interpretation--that of vocal ornamentation. We know that Handelian singers used to decorate his melodies with graces and melismatic figures, and cadenzas (often very considerable) which have disappeared for the greater part. Chrysander, in editing Handel's works, found them given as alternatives, and either suppressed them (those which were false to the historic sense of the text) or else rewrote them himself. It was in this last point that he stopped short of all possible guarantees of exactness, or at least of true resemblance. But his revisions found few supporters, and a discussion on his treatment of this subject has been recently raised amongst German musical writers.[317] This debate, the examination of which cannot be entered into in this volume, authorised, it seems, the following conclusions: