Oratorio
oratorio
A musical composition for solo voices, chorus, orchestra, and organ set to a religious text generally taken from Holy Scripture. Said to have originated in Saint Philip Neri’s oratory, the first of these sacred dramas, the “Anima e Corpo” by Emiglio del Cavaglieri, was performed in the oratory of the church of Santa Maria in Vallicella, 1600, and the name “Oratorio” applied to the new form about 60 years later.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Oratorio
As at present understood, an Oratorio is a musical composition for solo voices, chorus, orchestra, and organ, to a religious text generally taken from Holy Scripture. The dramatic element contained in the text depends for its expression on the music alone.
The tradition that the oratorio originated in St. Philip Neri’s oratory has recently been attacked, notably by the historian and critic E. Schelle, in “Neue Zeitschrift für Musik” (Leipzig, 1864). The chief point he makes is that the oratories of San Girolamo and Santa Maria in Vallicella, at Rome, were unsuitable for the performance of sacred dramas. In refutation, it suffices to recall the established fact that Emiglio del Cavaglieri’s rapprasentazione sacra, “Anima e corpo”, had its first performance in the Vallicella (Chiesa Nuova) in 1600, five years after the death of St. Philip. Although the name oratorio was not applied to the new form until sixty years later (Andrea Bontempi, 1624-1705), there is an unbroken tradition connecting the exercises established by St. Philip with the period when the new art-form received its definite character. While in the sixteenth century liturgical polyphonic music reached its highest development, secular music boasted only one ensemble or choral form, the madrigal. The spirit of the Renaissance, that is the revolt against the domination of the arts by the spirit of the Church, led to the restoration of Greek monody, and gradually perfected compositions for one or more voices and instruments which ultimately culminated in the opera.
St. Philip, realizing the great power of music, provided in the rule for his congregation, “that his fathers together with the faithful, should rouse themselves to the contemplation of heavenly things by means of musical harmony”. He seized upon the good in the new trend and made it the foundation of a new form upon which he, perhaps unconsciously, put a stamp retained ever since. He practically created a style midway between liturgical and secular music. His love of simplicity caused him to oppose and counteract the prevailing artificial semi-pagan, literary, and oratorical style which had its musical counterpart in the display of contrapuntal skill for its own sake practised to so great an extent at that time. He drew to himself masters like Giovanni Annimuccia and Pier Luigi da Palestrina, formed them spiritually, and bade them set to music, in simple and clear style, for three or four voices, short poems in the vernacular, generally written by himself, and called “Laudi spirituali”. Many of these were preserved by F. Soto di Langa, a musician and a disciple of the saint. Their performance alternated with spiritual reading, prayer, and a sermon by one of the fathers, by a layman, or even by a boy. From these exercises, which attracted enormous crowds, and obtained great renown throughout Italy, it was but a step to the Commedia harmonica “Amfiparnasso”, by Orazio Vecchi (1550-1605), a dialogue in madrigal form between two choirs (first performed at Modena in 1594), and the rapprasentazione sacra “Anima e corpo”, by Cavaglieri. The latter consisted of short phrases for a single voice, more varied in form than the recitativo secco, but not yet sufficiently developed to have a distinct melodic physiognomy, accompanied by instruments, and choral numbers, or madrigals. Similar productions multiplied rapidly. Wherever the Oratorians established themselves they cultivated this form to attract the young people. The municipal library of Hamburg contains a collection, gathered by Chrysander of twenty-two different texts which originated with the disciples of St. Philip during the second half of the seventeenth century. Even more active in the creation and propagation of these musico-dramatic productions throughout this period were the Jesuits, who, especially in Germany, used these musical plays in their schools and colleges everywhere. Up to the latter part of the seventeenth century the burden of the texts for these compositions was either a legend, the history of a conversion, the life of a saint, or the passion of a martyr.
Among those who cultivated, or helped in developing, the oratorio in Italy were Benedetto Ferrari (1597-1681), “Samsone”; Agostino Agazzari (1578- 1640), dramma pastorale, “Eumelio”; Loreto Vitorii (1588-1670) “La pellegrina costante”, “Sant’ Ignazio Loyola”. Giacomo Carissimi (1604-74), through whom the oratorio made a notable advance, was the first master to turn to Holy Scripture for his texts. His works, with Latin or Italian texts, many of which have been preserved (see CARISSIMI) together with those of his contemporaries, show practically the same construction as is followed in the present time: recitatives, arias, duets, and terzettos, alternating with single and double choruses and instrumental numbers. The historicus or narrator (in some scores designated by the word testo, “text”) has replaced scenic display and dramatic action. Carissimi’s orchestration exhibits a resourcefulness and charm before unknown. His oratorio “Jephtha” (in an arrangement by Dr. Immanuel Faisst) was performed successfully at Leipzig as recently as 1873. After him, the greatest Italian master was Alessandro Scarlatti (1659-1725) a pupil of Francesco Provenzale and Carissimi. Chief among his works are “I dolori di Maria” and “Il Sacrificio d’Abramo”.
About this time the leadership passed to Germany, where Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) had previously prepared the soil by his compositions known as “Passion music” and other works resembling the Italian oratorio. Others who had received their formation in Italy, but whose activity was chiefly confined to Germany, and who transplanted the oratorio thither, were Ignatius Jacob Holzbauer (1711-83), “Bethulia liberata”; Johann Adolphe Hasse (1699-1783), “La Conversione di S. Agostino” etc.; Antonio Caldara (1670-1736); Nicolo Jomelli (1714-1774); Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1634-1704), a pupil of Carissimi and a gifted composer, wrote, besides a large number of works for the church, eighteen oratorios in the style of his master which had great vogue in France. His “Reniement de St. Pierre” has recently been revived with great success in Paris, and has since been published. In the hands of Johann Mattheson (1681-1764), the oratorio becomes identified with Protestant worship in Germany. Contemporary with George Frederick Händel (1685-1759) he wrote twenty-four oratorios, intended to be divided into two parts by a sermon, the whole constituting a religious service. His texts were mostly taken from Scripture. Biblical events are brought into conjunction and contrasted with contemporary happenings, and a moral is drawn. Others who cultivated the oratorio form, particularly in Protestant Germany, were George Philip Telemann (1681-1767), Constantine Bellermann (1696-1758), and Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707).
Through Händel the oratorio attained a position in musical art more important than at any previous period in its history and never surpassed since. In his hands it became the expression of the sturdy Saxon faith unaffected by the spirit of doubt latent in the religious revolt of the sixteenth century. Formed in Germany and Italy, he united in a pre-eminent degree the highest creative gifts. The most productive period of his life was spent in England, and, after having cultivated the opera for a number of years, he finally turned to the oratorio, producing a series of works (“The Messiah”, “Israel in Egypt”, “Saul”, “Jephtha”, “Belshazar”, “Samson” etc.) unrivalled for heroic grandeur and brilliancy. It may be said that they express the national religious ideal of a Protestant Christian people more adequately than does their form of worship. This undoubtedly accounts for the interest taken in oratorio performances by the people in England and in Protestant Germany. Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) produced two of the greatest oratorios which we possess: “The Creation” and “The Seasons”. While composed to secular texts, they breathe the most tender piety and joy through an inexhaustible wealth of lyric and lofty music. A third oratorio, “Ritorno di Tobia”, on a Biblical text, has not the same importance, nor does Mozart (1756-91), in his only oratorio, “Davidde penitente”, attain the artistic level of most of his productions, Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) wrote one oratorio, “The Mount of Olives”, which shows him at his best.
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-47), in “Elijah” and “St. Paul”, returns to the early Protestant feature of letting the supposed congregation or audience participate in the performance by singing the chorales or church hymns, the texts of which consist of reflections and meditations on what has preceded. From this period the oratorio begins to be cultivated almost exclusively by Catholics. Franz Liszt (1811-86), with his “Christus” and “Legende der Heiligen Elizabeth”, opens up a new and distinctly Catholic era. France, which, since the days of Charpentier, had practically neglected the oratorio, probably on account of the opera appealing more strongly to French taste and temperament, and because of the lack of amateur singers has, within the last thirty years, furnished a number of remarkable works. Charles-François Gounod (1818-93) with his “Redemption”, and “Mors et Vita”, gave a renewed impetus to the cultivation of the oratorio. The “Samson and Delilah” of Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-) may be performed either as an oratorio or as an opera; as opera it has attained the greater favour. Jules Massenet (1842-) has essayed the form with his “Eve” and “Mary Magdalen”, but his style is entirely too sensational and melodramatic to carry the text. Gabriel Pierné’s (1863-) “Children’s Crusade” and the smaller work, “The Children at Bethlehem”, have both obtained great popularity in Europe and America.
Italy’s sole representative of any note in more than two hundred years is Don Lorenzo Perosi (1872-), with his trilogy “The Passion of Our Lord according to St. Mark”, “The Transfiguration of Christ”, and “The Resurrection of Lazarus”, a “Christmas Oratorio”, “Leo the Great”, and “The Last Judgment”. Belgium and England have produced the three most remarkable exponents of the oratorio within the last fifty years. César Auguste Franck’s (1822-90) oratorios, “Ruth”, “Rebecca”, “Redemption”, and, above all, his “Beatitudes”, rank among the greatest of modern works of the kind. Edward William Elgar (1857-) has become famous by his “Dream of Gerontius” and his “Apostles”. But Edgar Tinel (1854-) is probably the most gifted among the modern Catholics who have reclaimed the oratorio from non-Catholic supremacy. His world-famous “St. Francis of Assisi” is perhaps more remarkable for the spiritual heights it reveals than for its dramatic power. Other works of his which have attracted attention are “Godoleva” and “St. Catherine”. It is a happy omen that all these authors, in the fore-front of present-day composers, command the highest creative and constructive skill which enables them to turn into Catholic channels all the modern conquests in means of expression. The Catholic Oratorio Society of New York was founded in 1904 to promote the knowledge and reproduction of oratorios that best exemplify the religious ideal.
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CAPECELATRO, tr. POPE, The Life of St. Philip Neri (London, 1894); KRETZSCHMAR, Führer durch den Concertsaal, II (Leipzig, 1899); REIMANN, Geschichte der Musiktheorie (Leipzig, 1898); SPITTA, Die Passionsmusiken von Sebastian Bach und Heinrich Schütz (Hamburg, 1893); Jahrbuch der Musikbibliothek Peters für 1903 (Leipzig, 1904).
JOSEPH OTTEN. Transcribed by Douglas J. Potter Dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XICopyright © 1911 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, February 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Oratorio
(from Ital. oratorio, chapel or oratory, after the place where these compositions were first performed) is the term applied to a sacred musical composition, bearing the same relation to Church music which the opera does to secular music, and, like it, consisting of airs, duets, choruses, etc. It is, in short, a spiritual opera, and holds an intermediate place between religious and secular compositions. The text is generally a dramatized religious poem, as Handel’s Samson and Cimarosa’s Sacrifizio d’Abramo. Sometimes it takes the form of a narrative, as Israel in Egypt; and occasionally it is of a mixed kind, as Haydn’s Creation. The Messiah is a collection of passages from our received translation of the Scriptures.
Concerning the origin of the oratorio, Dr. Brown, Sir John Hawkins, and others seem to have misunderstood the pere Menestrier, who, in his work Des Representations en Musique, attributes to the pilgrims, on their return from the Holy Land, not the introduction of what we term oratorios, as those writers supposed, but of the sacred dramas called Mysteries (q.v.). The learned Jesuit is perhaps himself in error on this subject. It is Wharton’s opinion that about the 8th century the merchants who frequented the fairs, employing every art to draw numbers together, were accompanied by jugglers, minstrels, and buffoons, who were the source of great amusement to the people. The clergy, thinking that such entertainments tended to irreligion, proscribed them; but their censures and fulminations being disregarded, they took into their own hands the management of popular recreations they turned actors and, instead of profane mummeries, presented stories taken from legends, or from the Bible (Hist. of Poetry). Voltaire conjectures that religious dramas came from Constantinople, where, about the 4th century, archbishop Gregory of Nazianzum, one of the fathers of the Church, banished plays from the stage of that city, and introduced stories from the O. and N.T. As the ancient Greek tragedy was originally a religious representation, a transition was made on the same plan, and the choruses were turned into Christian hymns. This opinion, says the candid Wharton, will acquire probability if we consider the early commercial intercourse between Italy and Constantinople.
Admitting this, we need seek no farther for the original source of the sacred musical drama. As regards the more recent introduction of the oratorio, Crescimbeni, in his Commentario, tells us that it is attributable to San Filippo Neri (q.v.), who in his chapel (nel suo oratorio), after sermons and other devotions, in order to allure young people to pious offices, and to detain them from earthly pleasures, had hymns and psalms sung by one or more voices. Bourdelot is rather more circumstantial on this subject. He says S. Filippo de Neri, a native of Florence, founder in 1540 of the Congregation of the Priests of the Oratory in Italy, observing the taste and passion of the Romans for musical entertainments, determined to afford the nobles and people the means of enjoying them on Sundays and festivals in his church, and engaged for this purpose the ablest poets and composers, who produced dialogues in verse on the principal subjects of Scripture, which he caused to be performed by the most beautiful voices in Rome, accompanied by all sorts of instruments.
These performances consisted of airs, duets’, trios, and recitatives for four voices; the subjects were, Job and his Friends, the Prodigal Son received by his Father, the Angel Gabriel with the Virgin, and the Mystery of the Incarnation. Nothing was spared to render these attractive; the novelty and perfection thereof drew a crowd of auditors, who were delighted with the performances, and contributed largely, by admission money, to the expenses incurred. Hence are derived what we now call oratorios, or sacred representations (Hist. de la Musique [1743], 1:256). Some of these poems were printed under the title of Ludi Spirituali, and among the first authors of them was P. Agostino Manni. One of the most remarkable was entitled Rappresentatione di Anima e di Corpo, del Signior Emilio del Cavalieri, per recitar cantando. It was the first attempt in the recitative style, and performed in action on a stage erected in the church of Santa Maria della Vallicella, at Rome, with scenes, dances, etc., as appears from the editor’s dedication to cardinal Aldobrandini, and the composer’s instructions for the performance. From the latter Dr. Burney (Hist. of Music, 4:88) gives some curious extracts, among which are the following: The accompanying instruments, namely, a double lyre, a harpsichord, a large guitar, and two flutes to be behind the scenes; but the performers are desired to have instruments in their hands, as the appearing to play would help the illusion. The books of the words were printed. Instead of the modern overture, a madrigal, with all the parts doubled, and fully accompanied, is recommended. When the curtain rises, two youths, who recite the prologue, appear. Then Time, one of the characters, comes on, and has the note with which he is to begin given him by the instruments behind the scenes. The chorus is to be placed on the stage, part sitting and part standing; and when they sing they are to be in motion, with gestures. II Corpo (the body), at the words Si che hormai alma via, throws away his ornaments. The World and Human Life are to be gayly dressed, and when divested of their trappings are to appear poor and wretched, and finally as dead carcasses. The performance may conclude with or without a dance. If without, the last chorus is to be doubled in all its parts. But if a dance is preferred, a verse beginning Chiostri altissismi is to be sung, accompanied reverentially by the dance. During the ritornels the four principal dancers are to perform a ballet, saltato con capriole (danced with capers), without singing. They may sometimes use the gailliard step, sometimes the canary, and sometimes the courant.
The name of Oratorios was given, some think, to these performances because they owed their birth to the Priests of the Oratory; we are, however, as already stated, more inclined to derive the term from the place, the oratorio (oratorium, oratory or small chapel), in which they were first heard. But the word does not appear to have been in use till about the year 1630, when Balducci applied it to two of his sacred poems. The unfortunate Stradella was one of the first of those who distinguished themselves in this exalted kind of composition; his Oratario di San Giovanni Battista, produced about the year 1670, is analyzed and much praised by Burney (4:105). A fine chorus from this, in five parts, is printed in the fourth volume of The Fitzwilliam Music. The increasing popularity of the sacred drama at length induced poets of eminence to employ their pens in its service. Apostolo Zeno, the imperial poet-laureate, produced seventeen works of this kind, under the title of Azioni Sacre, most of which were set by Caldara, imperial vice-chapelmaster to Leopold I, whose reputation as a composer of sacred music stands deservedly high. The first of them, Sisara, was performed in 1717. Metastasio wrote seven Azioni, of which Caldara set two; the first, La Passione, in 1730. This was reset by Jomelli, and is justly reckoned among the best of his works. Sebastian Bach’s Passions-Musik was a species of oratorio, originally performed during the service of the church, the congregation joining in the chorals. Its form arose out of the practice prevalent in the Lutheran Church of having the gospels of the day repeated on Good-Friday, and some other festivals, by different persons, in a recitative and dialogue style. SEE PASSION.
The oratorio was introduced into England in 1720, when Handel set Esther Racine’s tragedy abridged and altered by Mr. Humphreys for the chapel of the duke of Chandos (Pope’s Timon) at Cannons. Previous to this time Handel had produced an oratorio entitled La Resurrezione, which he brought out at Rome when only twenty years of age, but Esther was his first brought out in England. In 1731 it was performed by the children of the Chapel-Royal at the house of their master, Bernard Gates. The next year it was publicly produced, as appears from the following advertisement in the Daily Journal: By his majesty’s command. at the King’s Theatre in the Haymarket, on Tuesday, May 2, will be performed the sacred story of Esther, an oratorio in English, formerly composed by Mr. Handel, and now revived by him, with several additions, and to be performed by a great number of voices and instruments. N. B. There will be no acting on the stage, but the house will be fitted up in a decent manner for the audience.
The success of this was of the most decided and encouraging kind. The custom of performing oratorios on the Wednesdays and Fridays in Lent is to be dated from 1737, from which time they were, with few intermissions, continued till a very recent period. By Handel himself no oratorio was produced after the appearance of Esther, until, in his fifty-third year, he became afflicted with blindness. From this his declining period of life date the great oratorios which have made his name immortal. These were performed for the most part in the Old Haymarket Theatre. Deborch was first performed in 1733; Athaliah, in 1734; Israel in Egypt, in 1738; The Messiah, in 1741; Samson, in 1742; Judas Maccabaeus, in 1746; Joshua, in 1747; Solomon, in 1749; and Jephthah, in 1751. The two crowning works were Israel in Egypt and The Messiah-the former ranks highest of all compositions of the oratorio class. The Messiah-which, ill consequence of its text being taken entirely from Scripture, was called by Handel The Sacred Oratorio, ranks very near it in point of musical merit, and has attained an even more universal popularity; from the time when it was first brought out, down to the present day, it has been performed for the benefit of nearly every important charitable institution in Britain, and also in the U. S., though somewhat less frequently for the same purpose. Judas Maccabaeus is perhaps best known from the flowing and martial grace of that unrivalled military march, See the Conquering Hero comes; and Saul is associated in every one’s mind with the most solemn of all funeral marches. The orchestra was but imperfectly developed in Handel’s time, and his oratorios had therefore originally but meagre instrumental accompaniments; they have since been generally performed with additional accompaniments written by Mozart. Handel was succeeded in this musical speculation by his friend, J. C. Smith, who was followed by Stanley and the elder Linley. Linley and Dr. Arnold then in conjunction most successfully carried on the oratorios, which were continued by the latter on the retirement of his colleague. An opposition was now started by Ashley, who had been active as a subordinate agent at the commemoration of Handel in 1784. This person soon transformed the performances into secular and often vulgar concerts, though retaining the original name; and from that time the oratorios began to degenerate.
Great masters of oratorios are Haydn, Mendelssohn, Bach, Cimarosa, and Jomelli. Haydn composed three oratorios, The Return of Tobias, The Seven Last Words, and The Creation. The first-named work is full of sweetness and of energy, but it hardly answers to the common conditions of an oratorio; the second is rather a series of symphonies, intended to follow as many short sermons on the sentences uttered by Jesus on the cross. the text being a subsequent addition by the composer’s brother, Michael Haydn. The chef-d’oeuvre, The Creation, originated in a visit to London in 1791, when Haydn heard for the first time some of Handel’s compositions, then unknown in the great musician’s native country. Though less grand than the oratorios of this AnglicizedGerman musical master, The Creation is full of fresh, lovely songs, bright choruses, picturesque recitatives, and exquisite instrumentation. Beethoven’s sole oratorio, The Mount of Olives, is a pure drama rather than the mixed composition generally designated as oratorio. Spohr’s Last Judgment, produced in 1825, contains some grand music, especial in the choruses. Costa’s Eli deserves mention. But the master of modern oratorios is Mendelssohn. Indeed, his greatest works are in this line of composition, as his St. Paul and Elijah. His great ambition was to reawaken an interest in the oratorio, especially in Great Britain; and since his day oratorios are performed on a large scale at Exeter Hall, London, and at the musical festivals throughout England, with a power, precision, and perfection before unheard of, and unknown anywhere else. The greatest oratorio performances probably in the world are those of the triennial festivals at the Sydenham Crystal Palace. In the United States musical societies are aiming for a like development, and in very recent times a number of oratorios have been printed and performed. Bradbury and Mason have labored in this direction, but the most successful compositions are by J. A. Butterfield, of Chicago, who has been called to different parts of this large country, and has trained a host of musical associations with extraordinary success. Among his best compositions are Belshazzar and Ruth and Naomi. See, besides the works on music referred to, Penny Cyclop. s.nv.; Chambers, Cyclop. s.v.; Academy (Lond. 1872), p. 86; Presb. Qu. and Princet. Rev. Jan. 1875, art. viii.