“One is prone to accept too readily the idea that expressive _nuance_ is the privilege of modern musical art and that Handel’s Orchestra knew only the great theatrical contrasts between force and sweetness, or loudness and softness. It is nothing of the kind. The range of Handel’s _nuances_ is extremely varied. We find with him _pianissimo_, _piano_, _mezzo piano_, _mezzo forte_, _un poco più F._, _un poco F._, _forte_, _fortissimo_. We never find the orchestral _crescendo_ and _decrescendo_, which hardly appears marked until the time of Jomelli and the school of Mannheim; there is no doubt, however, but that it was practised long before it was marked in the music. The President of Brosses wrote in 1739 from Rome: ‘The voices like the violins used with light and shade with unconscious swelling of sound, which augments the force from note to note, even to a very high degree since its use as a _nuance_ is extremely sweet and touching.’ And endless examples occur in Handel of long _crescendi_ and _diminuendi_ without their expression being marked in the scores. Another kind of _crescendo_ and _diminuendo_—made on the same note—was very common in the time of Handel. His friend, Geminiani, helped to set the fashion. “As Geminiani explains it: ‘The sound ought to commence softly and should swell out in a gradual fashion to about half its value. Then, it should diminish to the end. The movement of the bow should continue without interruption.’”[56] Padre Martini said that Gluck combined in the music-drama “all the finest qualities of Italian and many of those of French music with the great beauties of the German orchestra.” Gluck began where Handel left off. Handel had already treated mythological subjects. He had also written an _Alceste_ and an _Armida_ before Gluck appeared on the scene. Handel (who is said not to have liked Gluck at all) was Gluck’s chosen master on account of “the wonderful beauties of his melodies, the grandeur of his style and his rhythms like armies on the march.” Gluck not only followed Handel, but he adored him. He kept Handel’s portrait over his bed! “Gluck gave the Orchestra a new life, assigning the first place to it in some cases, letting it express the feeling that captivates the listener. With him violins, oboes and trombones are not merely sonorous agents; they are living entities, personages of action. Through the Orchestra he adds dazzling beauty to a temple scene, or a scene in the Elysian Field; and by little touches on certain instruments here and there he can make us feel the mystery of the infernal regions. Gluck’s great gift to the Orchestra was to make it _speak_.”[57]