The Music of Hindostan c13.s3.132

c13.s3.132

in which the sections are twice shortened from four bars to two, and the phrases twice overlap so as to produce the effect of two three-bar sections. It would be clearer if our music were printed as Handel wrote (though not consistently) his *Messiah*, with barlines running all through the staves at each new section, and between these places only through the single staves; it would have the effect which punctuation has upon the written word (and would be as difficult to get right). An instance of the judgement he exercised in this matter may be seen in the two versions, given in the autograph score, of the opening symphony of ‘But who may abide’.