The Oratorio - History and Composers of Oratorios

Characteristics of the Oratorio An oratorio is an extended composition for vocal soloists, chorus and orchestra; the narrative text is usually based on scripture or biblical stories but is non-liturgical. Although the oratorio is often about sacred subjects, it may also deal with semi-sacred subjects. This large-scale work is often compared to an opera, but unlike the opera, the oratorio often doesn't have acting, costumes and scenery. The chorus is an important element of an oratorio and the narrator's recitatives help move the story forward. History of the Oratorio During the mid-1500s, an Italian priest by the name of San Filippo Neri founded the Congregation of the Oratory. Notable Composers of Oratorios Early examples of oratorios include the "Representation of Soul and Body" (La rappresentazione di anima e di corpo) by the Italian composer Emilio del Cavaliere and the 16 oratorios based on the Old Testament written by the Italian composer Giacomo Carissimi. Reference: oratorio.

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Oratorio History[edit] 1600, origins of the oratorio[edit] Although medieval plays such as the Ludus Danielis, and Renaissance dialogue motets such as those of the Oltremontani had characteristics of an oratorio, the first oratorio is usually seen as Emilio de Cavalieri's Rappresentatione di Anima, et di Corpo. Monteverdi composed Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda which can be considered as the first secular oratorio. The Oratorios of Handel Background The Italian Baroque oratorio was hardly anything other than an opera on a sacred subject, presented in concert instead of on the stage. This conception is an essential element of Handel's oratorios. Most of the arias in these works differ in no important respects -- neither in form, musical style, nature of the musical ideas, nor technique of expressing affects -- from the arias in his operas. As in the operas also, the mood of each aria is usually prepared, and the aria introduced, by a preceding recitative. But there are alterations and additions which transform the oratorios into something different from the conventional 18th-century opera.

: Featured Composer at Boosey.com Music Shop. Handel was the cosmopolitan composer of his age, and one of music’s greatest melodists. He is most famed as a composer of oratorios such as the evergreen Messiah, and works for ceremonial occasions such as the Water Music and the Music for the Royal Fireworks. He is also increasingly recognised as one of history’s leading opera composers, investing the formal framework of the time with vivid characterisation and larger-than-life emotions. He wrote for the leading vocalists of the day, exploiting their virtuosity in operas such as Julius Caesar, Tamerlano and Rodelinda, while also capable of a touching simplicity in arias including the famous Largo from Xerxes. Handel, like Bach, was born in 1685 in Germany. He trained as a keyboard player and set out to seek his fortune in Hamburg, working first as a violinist and developing his talents as a composer.

Baroque sacred music - oratorio Baroque era is known for its several grand forms of church music, including the passion, the oratorio, or the cantata. They were all based on texts refering to the sacred religious book (Bible), although the setting was different between these three music forms. The passion was based on Jesus' suffering and was based on the Gospel texts, the Oratorio was more poetic and could be about any other Biblical story, while cantatas were based on Biblical texts. It is quite remarkable that in the midst of separation between the sacred and the secular, composers wrote for both of the worlds. They didn't necessarily fought on either side of the schism.