We are told that when Handel conducted one of his oratorios the chorus had their leaders who listened to the organ from which they took their cues. The Orchestra was divided into three sections. Section No. I was the _Concertino_, consisting of a first and second violin and a solo violoncello. Section No. II was the _Concerto Grossi_, consisting of eight first violins, eight second violins, six violas, four to six violoncellos and four double basses. Section No. III was the _Ripienist_, or the supplementary band, consisting of six first violins, six second violins, four violas, three to four violoncellos and three basses. This _Ripienist_ band was employed to fill in the harmonies, or to support the solos, and the _concertante_ parts. The picture facing this page, taken from an old print in the British Museum, represents Handel seated at the clavecin (a _cembalo_ with two keyboards), of which the lid is raised. On his right hand is the violoncellist. Before his eye are two violins and two flutes. The solo singers are near him, on his left, close to the clavecin. The rest of the instrumentalists are behind him, out of 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 Grossi_ and they, in their turn, to the _Ripienists_. In place of the quasi-military discipline of the modern Orchestra, controlled under the _bâton_ of a chief conductor the different bodies of the Handelian Orchestra governed one another with elasticity; and it was the incisive rhythm of the _cembalo_ that put the whole mass into motion.”[54] We rarely hear any of Handel’s music with exactly the Orchestra for which he wrote. All conductors realize the difficulty of having anyone improvise on the organ, or piano, to fill in the bald and empty spaces. Moreover, it would confuse the singers and terrify the audience. Improvising at concerts has gone out of fashion. [Illustration: HANDEL CONDUCTING THE ORCHESTRA _Handel at the Cembalo_] This was even realized in Mozart’s day; and so Mozart wrote those beautiful “additional accompaniments” to _The Messiah_, which give to that oratorio no little of its grace and nobility. Mozart, as we know, was a genius in instrumentation and even in his day people demanded something different from the Handelian concert. Handel, however, was always seeking for novel effects. He was one of the first to introduce the horn into the Orchestra and he was “the first to assert the expressive personality of the violoncello.”[55] He also appreciated the fantastic and lugubrious quality of the bassoons; experimented with all kinds of instruments; and used the kettledrums as a solo for Jupiter’s oath in _Semele_. This was so unusual and so startling that Sheridan in his burletta on _Jupiter_ had a pistol fired suddenly, upon which one of the characters exclaims: “This hint I took from Handel!”