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178
GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL
Then comes the Larghetto, three-four time in E flat major, which Handel calls a Musette, and which is one of the most delightful dreams of pastoral happiness.[1] A whole day of poetic and capricious events gradually unrolls itself over the beautiful echoing refrain,
then the movement slackens, nearly going to sleep, then presses forward again, acquiring a strong, joyous rhythm, a pulsating dance of robust youths, full of bounding life.
- ↑ Arnold Schering believes that the idea of this Musette was given to Handel by a ritournelle from Leonardo Leo's S. Elena il Calvaroa.
