Choral music
Oratorio
The first oratorios started to appear at the start of the Baroque period and in many ways were little different from the first operas. Although they were religious works they contained solo singers, chorus, scenery, staging and accompanying instruments. As the first great oratorios appeared in the early 18th century the works were performed as concert pieces with soloists, chorus and orchestra. Handel was the most prolific composer of this style and wrote many works, including ‘Israel in Egypt’, ‘Saul’, ‘Samson’ and the most famous of all, the ‘Messiah’.
(Portrait of George Frederic Handel 1685 - 1759)
The various groups involved all had different functions.
The orchestra
(The Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Chorus. Photograph: Jeremy Hardie)
Accompanied the soloists and chorus and also played instrumental interludes, perhaps to set the mood for a section of the story, for instance ‘The Pastoral symphony’ from the 'Messiah'.
Soloists
Told the story through recitative, a declamatory style of singing which has a rhythm similar to the rhythm of speaking the words. They then usually went on to sing an aria which would describe their personal feelings about the story and their reaction to it.
The chorus
Played the part of the people, the mob or the onlookers.
Listen to an excerpt which shows all the ingredients mentioned above, recitative, aria, chorus and orchestra.
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This oratorio is also famous for one of the most well known choruses ever written. Listen to the ‘Hallelujah’ chorus from the end of the second part of this work.
The passions
Bach wrote a ‘Christmas Oratorio’, really a set of six short cantatas, and three ‘Passions’, really just his version of an oratorio, which told the story of the crucifixion of Christ. To the standard menu of the Handel oratorio, Bach added chorales, i.e. German hymn tunes. In this excerpt from the ‘St John Passion’, Jesus has just been crucified, Pilate has written an inscription for the cross ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews’, described by the Evangelist, a tenor voice. The chorus shout, “Don’t write ‘King of the Jews’ but write that he said, ‘I am the King of the Jews”’. The bass voice of Pilate replies, ‘What I have written, I have written.’ The chorus ends the section with the wonderful and very famous chorale ‘In Meines Herzens Grunde’, ‘In the depths of my heart’. The explanation above may help guide you through this excerpt in the original German text.
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(Portrait of J S Bach in 1848, two years before his death)
Finally, listen to the final part of the last and very famous chorus, ‘Ruht Wohl’, ‘Rest’.
Mass
In the Baroque period many composers wrote Masses and perhaps the most outstanding of these is the Mass in B Minor by J S Bach. This was a Lutheran Mass, written for the reformed church but still with a Latin text. By this time the Mass was being performed with similar performers as those used in oratorio performances so it was normal to find, not an a cappella performance as heard in Renaissance times, but a full performance for soloists, chorus and orchestra. Listen to the start of the chorus part of the Kyrie from this Mass, which is quite clearly a fugue, a style much favoured by Bach in all his music. Notice the fugue starts with the tenor voices and then the other four parts enter in turn: alto, 1st soprano, 2nd soprano and finally basses.
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Cantata
Coming from the Italian word cantare, to sing, this is a shorter religious work than an oratorio; in fact, it can be thought of as a mini oratorio that usually lasts only 15 to 30 minutes. It usually contains similar ingredients to the larger work. J S Bach from the Baroque period was the most prolific composer of cantatas, as in his post of church organist he was expected to produce these on a regular basis for performance in the churches of Leipzig, where he was appointed Cantor in 1723. He wrote over 300 cantatas during this period, of which some 200 survive. Many of these contain all the oratorio ingredients, recitative, arias, choruses and, like his three Passions, chorales, all accompanied by an orchestra and continuo. First of all listen to a chorale (a German hymn tune) from an early cantata, sung by a quartet of voices rather than a choir, and notice the homophonic texture of the excerpt.
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