previously memorized, to realize this. And then, when the instrumentation of a composition for twenty-five different kinds of orchestral instruments is considered, the arranging of the bars and the writing of the numerous signs of expression, the manual labor becomes no insignificant task. It is no infrequent thing to find over two hundred notes in a single measure of a full orchestral score.
While many shorter things, such as overtures, might be fully arranged in mind before touching pen to paper, that cannot be said of the larger works. In these, composition and writing probably went, to some extent, hand in hand.
That enormous work of Händel's, the oratorio, "Israel in Egypt," he wrote in the space of twenty-seven days; while that greatest of oratorios, the "Messiah," he composed in the remarkably short time of twenty-three days! The opera, "Rinaldo," Händel wrote in just two weeks.
Mendelssohn wrote his overture to "Ruy Blas" in two days. He was waited upon by a committee two days before the concert at which "Ruy Blas" was first given, and in the course of their remarks they said that owing to the lateness of the day they could not expect him to write an overture. This rather nettled Mendelssohn, and although he had another concert and rehearsals to attend in the intervening two days, he was ready with the "Ruy Blas " overture when the time arrived.
But few wrote music more rapidly than Mozart. The overture to "Don Giovanni" he wrote in one night, working with but slight intermission until seven next morning. He had it all arranged in mind, but had put off the writing until the last moment. That night the orchestra played it at sight. He composed the G major symphony in ten days; but a greater feat than this was the writing of the whole of the "Marriage of Figaro" in the month of April, 1786. The finale of the second act of this opera he wrote in one day, and that while he
