Bob Kasenchak will probably to get a few irate emails for what he wrote:

>the same 10 words of text be used for one 15 minute aria? ...

If something does not change in music enough to be interesting, you
listen to something else surely.  The 4th movement of Janaceks Sinfonietta
is melodically very repetitive, its the varying context that it is seen in
which provokes the interest.  Similarly Handel does not churn out the same
music over and over for every repetition of line of text, he may change the
harmony, the counterpoint, use a different melodic sequence etc.  And he
could write some wonderful tunes:  Date Flores from the Silete Venti motet
goes on for 10 minutes but you don't mind because the tune is so gorgeous.
But there are very few lines of text.

To support your point though, I find that arias do tend to all roll into
each other while I gradually lose conciousness unless I take them in
bitesize chunks, so 40 minutes is the ideal time to take a break from a
Handel oratorio or opera.  Then you tend to enjoy it all instead of just
the first 40 minutes.

David Stewart
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