There was an operatic, at times almost cinematic heft to the orchestra that magnified the text setting's intensity.

The text setting has its amusing turns.

In his text settings, Janacek specifically sought a conversational quality.

But he was not averse to dissonance, which he used effectively to give his text settings tension and depth.

There are also some weaknesses in Mr. Thomas's approach to text setting.

It is, after all, the first of the season that rekindles one's admiration for Handel's vividly pictorial text setting.

Medieval techniques and approaches to text setting are plentiful, even dominant.

Mostly though, his text setting was awkward, singsongy and undifferentiated.

And Moore's text settings thwart the singers, placing phrases in awkward regions of the voice.

Janacek's "Sarka" also preserves two distinct approaches to text setting.