{"id":846,"date":"2015-07-30T18:08:45","date_gmt":"2015-07-30T18:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.candelalearning.com\/musicappreciation\/?post_type=chapter&p=846"},"modified":"2017-02-26T15:33:26","modified_gmt":"2017-02-26T15:33:26","slug":"oratorio","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/music-app-rford\/chapter\/oratorio\/","title":{"raw":"Oratorio","rendered":"Oratorio"},"content":{"raw":"
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\"Museos<\/a><\/h2>\r\n

Introduction<\/h2>\r\nAn oratorio is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists.\u00a0Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is musical theatre, while oratorio is strictly a concert piece\u2014though oratorios are sometimes staged as operas, and operas are sometimes presented in concert form. In an oratorio there is generally little or no interaction between the characters, and no props or elaborate costumes. A particularly important difference is in the typical subject matter of the text. Opera tends to deal with history and mythology, including age-old devices of romance, deception, and murder, whereas the plot of an oratorio often deals with sacred topics, making it appropriate for performance in the church. Protestant composers took their stories from the Bible, while Catholic composers looked to the lives of saints, as well as to Biblical topics. Oratorios became extremely popular in early seventeenth-century Italy partly because of the success of opera and the Catholic Church's prohibition of spectacles during Lent. Oratorios became the main choice of music during that period for opera audiences.\r\n
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History<\/span><\/h2>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

1600, Origins of the Oratorio<\/span><\/h3>\r\nAlthough 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<\/i>. Monteverdi composed Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda<\/i> which can be considered as the first secularoratorio.\r\n\r\nThe origins of the oratorio can be found in sacred dialogues in Italy. These were settings of Biblical, Latin texts and musically were quite similar to motets. There was a strong narrative, dramatic emphasis and there were conversational exchanges between characters in the work. Giovanni Francesco Anerio's Teatro harmonico spirituale<\/i> (1619) is a set of fourteen\u00a0dialogues, the longest of which is 20 minutes long and covers the conversion of St. Paul and is for four soloists: Historicus (narrator), tenor; St. Paul, tenor; Voice from Heaven, bass; and ananias, tenor. There is also a four-part chorus to represent any crowds in the drama. The music is often contrapuntal and madrigal-like. Philip Neri's Congregazione dell'Oratorio featured the singing of spiritual laude. These became more and more popular and were eventually performed in specially built oratories (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 sixty\u00a0minutes long). Cavalieri's Rappresentatione di Anima, et di Corpo<\/i> 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 the monodic style. The first oratorio to be called by that name is Pietro della Valle's Oratorio della Purificazione<\/i>, but due to its brevity (only twelve minutes long) and the fact that its other name was \"dialogue,\" we can see that there was much ambiguity in these names.\r\n

1650\u20131700<\/span><\/h3>\r\nDuring the second half of the seventeenth\u00a0century, there were trends toward the secularization of the religious oratorio. Evidence of this lies in its regular performance outside church halls in courts and public theaters. Whether religious or secular, the theme of an oratorio is meant to be weighty. It could include such topics as Creation, the life of Jesus, or the career of a classical hero or Biblical prophet. Other changes eventually took place as well, possibly because most composers of oratorios were also popular composers of operas. They began to publish the librettos 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 male narrator with the use of recitatives.\r\n\r\nBy the mid-seventeenth century, two types had developed:\r\n