The frequent introduction of the clarinets replaced the full and powerful organ tones, but without any express imitation of that particular sound-effect by Mozart. The whole character of the instrumentation was necessarily modified, and even the portions which were literally
transcribed from Handel's original have a very different effect in their altered surroundings. Mozart has proceeded quite as independently in dealing with the harpsichord parts. Not content with filling in the prescribed or suggested harmonies and regulating the due succession of chords, he has also made an independent disposition of the middle parts and given them free movement. The subjects employed by Handel are further developed, and sometimes a new motif has occurred to him as an enlivenment to the accompaniment, in which case the additional wind instruments are employed to advantage. The harpsichord is treated, in the main, as might be expected from a first-rate organist of that time, and it is difficult at the present day to reproduce what so much depends upon the free co-operation of the performer.[18] The objection which may be raised against the alteration and partial remodelling of a carefully thought-out and finished work by a strange hand is unanswerable. The most loving and intelligent treatment cannot avoid inequality and incongruity; compared with what has been literally transmitted, every modification reflects, both in kind and degree, the individual learning and taste of the adapter. On the whole, however, Mozart's arrangements evince the greatest reverence for Handel, combined with a masterly use of all available resources, and they afford a proof as interesting as it is instructive of the study which Mozart had bestowed upon Handel, of the spirit in which he undertook his task, and of his thorough and delicate apprehension of foreign creations.
Mozart had heard the "Messiah" in 1777 at Mannheim, but apparently it had made no more lasting impression upon him than upon the public. Now, however, he approached the masterpiece with far other predilections, and the adaptation opened to him many points of interest. The three oratorios already mentioned were so moderate in length as to be suited for performance entire, but the greatly