Any classical musicians (esp. cellists) here today? I have a question for you...

[Ocelot II]

12. Yes, especially in vocal music. It was expected in a da capo aria that the singer

would ornament the repeated section elaborately. There were conventions for this that singers followed, but by Handel's time a lot of them weren't written down. It started in the early Baroque period, long before Handel, with the first operas, especially Monteverdi's. The aria Possente spirto from Orfeo is wildly ornamented (and many of those were written into the score by the composer, who wrote two versions - one simple, one ornamented).