Handel is seen (on the left) seated at a cembalo with two keyboards in the midst of his musicians. At his right hand he has the "concertino" group (consisting of the 'cellist, two violinists and two flautists). On his near left (quite close to the cembalo) are the vocal soloists. The rest of the instrumentalists are out of his sight.] How was it possible to realise all the suppleness and subtleties of elocution on the orchestra? To understand this it is necessary to examine the disposition and placing of the orchestra of that time. It was not, as with us, centralised under the control of a single conductor. Thus, as Seiffert tells us,[403] in Handel's time it was the principle of decentralisation which ruled. The choruses had their leaders, who listened to the organ, from which they took their cue, and so sustained the voices. The orchestra was divided into three sections, after the Italian method. Firstly, the _Concertino_, comprising a first and a second violin, and a solo violoncello; secondly, the _Concerto Grosso_, comprising the instrumental choir; thirdly, the _Ripienists_ strengthening the _Grosso_.[404] A picture in the British Museum, representing Handel in the midst of his musicians, depicts the composer seated at the clavier (a cembalo with two keyboards, of which the lid is raised). He is surrounded by the violoncellist (placed at his right-hand side), two violins and two flutes, which are placed just before him, under his eye. The solo singers are also near him, on his left, quite close to the clavecin. The rest of the instrumentalists are behind him, out of his sight. Thus his directions and his glances would control the _Concertino_, who would transmit in their turn the chief conductor's wishes to the _Concerto Grosso_, and they in their turn to the _Ripienists_. In place of the quasi-military discipline of modern orchestras, controlled under the baton of a chief conductor, the different bodies of the Handelian orchestra governed one another with elasticity, and it was the incisive rhythm of the little _Cembalo_ which put the whole mass into motion. Such a method avoided the mechanical stiffness of our performances. The danger was rather a certain wobbling without the powerful and infectious will-power of a chief such as Handel, and without the close sympathy of thought which was established between him and his capable sub-conductors of the _Concertino_ and of the _Grosso_. It is this elasticity which should be aimed at in the instrumental works of Handel when they are executed nowadays.[405] * * * * * We will first take his _Concerti Grossi_.[406] None of his works are more celebrated and less understood. Handel attached to them a particular value, for he published them himself by subscription, a means which was usual in his day, but which he himself never adopted except under exceptional circumstances.