Similar toopera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters (e.g. soloists), andarias. However, opera ismusical theatre, and typically involves significanttheatrical spectacle, includingsets,props, andcostuming, as well as staged interactions between characters. In oratorio, there is generally minimalstaging, with the chorus often assuming a more central dramatic role, and the work is typically presented as a concert piece – though oratorios are sometimes staged as operas, and operas are not infrequently presented inconcert form.
A particularly important difference between opera and oratorio is in the typical subject matter of the text. An operalibretto may deal with any conceivable dramatic subject (e.g.history,mythology,Richard Nixon,Anna Nicole Smith and the Bible); the text of an oratorio often deals withsacred subjects, making it appropriate for performance in thechurch, which remains an important performance context for the genre.Catholic composers looked to the lives ofsaints and stories from theBible.Protestant composers also often looked to Biblical topics, but sometimes looked to the lives of notable religious figures, such asCarl Loewe's"Jan Hus", an oratorio about the early reformer,Jan Hus. Oratorios became extremely popular in early 17th-century Italy partly because of the success of opera and the Catholic Church's prohibition ofspectacles duringLent. Oratorios became the main choice of music during that annual period for opera audiences.[citation needed]
Conventionally, oratorio implies the sincere religious treatment of sacred subjects, such that non-sacred oratorio is generally qualified as 'secular oratorio': a piece of terminology that would, in some historical contexts, have been regarded asoxymoronic, or at least paradoxical,[2] and viewed with a degree ofscare-quoted skepticism.[3] Despite this enduring and implicit context, oratorio on secular subjects has been written from the genre'sorigins.
The wordoratorio comes from theLatin verbōrō (present infinitiveōrāre), meaning to orate orspeak publicly, to pray, or to beg or plead, related to theAttic Greek noun ἀρά (ará, “prayer”).[1][4] (Hence thedisambiguation entry for 'oratory', includingoratory (worship).) The musical composition was "named from the kind of musical services held in the church of theOratory of St. Philip Neri inRome (Congregazione dell'Oratorio) in the latter half of the 16th cent." The word is only attested in English from 1727, with the equivalent 'oratory' in prior use, from 1640.[1]
The origins of the oratorio can be found in sacred dialogues in Italy. These were settings of Biblical, Latin texts and musically were quite similar tomotets. There was a strong narrative, dramatic emphasis and there were conversational exchanges between characters in the work.Giovanni Francesco Anerio'sTeatro harmonico spirituale (1619) is a set of 14 dialogues, the longest of which is 20 minutes long and covers theconversion of St. Paul and is for four soloists: Historicus (narrator),tenor;St. Paul, tenor; Voice from Heaven,bass; andAnanias, tenor. There is also a four-part chorus to represent any crowds in the drama. The music is often contrapuntal andmadrigal-like.Philip Neri'sCongregazione dell'Oratorio featured the singing of spirituallaude. These became more and more popular and were eventually performed in specially builtoratories (prayer halls) by professional musicians. Again, these were chiefly based on dramatic and narrative elements.Sacred opera provided another impetus for dialogues, and they greatly expanded in length (although never really beyond 60 minutes long). Cavalieri'sRappresentatione di Anima, et di Corpo is an example of one of these works, but technically it is not an oratorio because it features acting and dancing. It does, however contain music in themonodic style.The first oratorio to be called by that name isPietro della Valle'sOratorio della Purificazione, but due to its brevity (only 12 minutes long) and the fact that its other name was "dialogue", we can see that there was much ambiguity in these names.
During the second half of the 17th century, there were trends toward the performance of the religious oratorio also outsidechurch halls in courts and publictheaters. The theme of an oratorio is meant to be weighty. It could include such topics asCreation, the life ofJesus, or the career of a classical hero or Biblicalprophet. Other changes eventually took place as well, possibly because most composers of oratorios were also popular composers of operas. They began to publish thelibrettos of their oratorios as they did for their operas. Strong emphasis was soon placed on arias while the use of the choir diminished. Female singers became regularly employed, and replaced the malenarrator with the use ofrecitatives.
The most significant composers oforatorio latino were in ItalyGiacomo Carissimi, whoseJephte is regarded as the first masterpiece of the genre (like most other Latin oratorios of the period, it is in one section only), and in France Carissimi's pupilMarc-Antoine Charpentier (34 works H.391 - H.425).
Lasting about 30–60 minutes,oratori volgari were performed in two sections, separated by asermon; their music resembles that of contemporary operas and chambercantatas.
In the latebaroque period oratorios increasingly became "sacred opera". In Rome and NaplesAlessandro Scarlatti was the most noted composer. In Vienna the court poetMetastasio produced annually a series of oratorios for the court which were set byCaldara,Hasse and others. Metastasio's best known oratorio librettoLa passione di Gesù Cristo was set by at least 35 composers from 1730 to 1790. In Germany the middle baroque oratorios moved from the early-baroqueHistoria style Christmas and Resurrection settings ofHeinrich Schütz, to the Passions ofJ. S. Bach, oratorio-passions such asDer Tod Jesu set byTelemann andCarl Heinrich Graun. After Telemann came the galante oratorio style ofC. P. E. Bach.
TheGeorgian era saw a German-born monarch and German-born composer define the English oratorio.George Frideric Handel, most famous today for hisMessiah (1741), also wrote other oratorios based on themes fromGreek andRoman mythology and Biblical topics. He is also credited with writing the first English language oratorio,Esther. Handel's imitators included the ItalianLidarti who was employed by the Amsterdam Jewish community to compose a Hebrew version ofEsther.
Joseph Haydn'sThe Creation (1798) andThe Seasons (1801) have remained the most widely known oratorios from the period of classicism. While the first of these Händel inspired works draws from the religious theme of creation, the second is more secular, containing songs about industry, hunting and wine.
Britain continued to look to Germany for its composers of oratorio. TheBirmingham Festival commissioned various oratorios includingFelix Mendelssohn'sElijah in 1846, later performed in German asElias. German composerGeorg Vierling is noted for modernizing the secular oratorio form.[5]
^Smither, Howard E.A History of the Oratorio. Vol. 2: The Oratorio in the Baroque Era - Protestant Germany and England. The University of North Carolina Press. p. 350.Seven works by Handel are sometimes classified as "secular oratorios": Acts and Galatea, Alexander's Feast, Ode for St. Cecilia's Day, L'Allegro, Semele, Hercules, and The Choice of Hercules.63 Nevertheless, none of these compositions was originally called an oratorio by its composer.In Handel's England the term secular oratorio was not used and would have seemed self-contradictory. Thus in a genre classification of Handel's works based on the terminology charac- teristic in England of his time, these seven compositions would be excluded from the oratorio category.
^"Rev. ofSemele. An Oratorio. Edited... by Ebenezer Prout".The Musical Times.19 (424): 338. 1 June 1878.doi:10.2307/3357342.JSTOR3357342.For want of a better term this work may be called a 'Secular Oratorio;' but... Arnold, not wishing to style it anOpera, mentions it as a 'dramatic performance' and certainly the nature of thelibretto precludes the possibility of our surrounding it with any religious associations.Victor Schœlcher, in hisLife of Handel... dwells on the absurdity of the feeling which, in the composer's time, prompted persons to forbidEsther orJudas Maccabaeus to be played in action, whilst they could listen with equanimity toSemele even inLent, because it was 'after the manner of an Oratorio.'
