Oratorio
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’.
During the Classical period the most important example was the ‘Creation’ by Haydn, a long and well known work using similar performers as in the works mentioned above.
In the Romantic period two examples are very important, both of which followed the Handel style and tradition of the oratorio.
‘L’enfance du Christ’, ‘The childhood of Christ’, by the French composer Berlioz was first performed in 1854 and contains much beautiful music. Here is perhaps the most famous chorus, ‘Thou must leave thy lowly dwelling’. Listen to the homophonic texture of the music, which is strophic in style, i.e. three verses of the same music.
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(left) Hector Berlioz 1803 - 1869
Mendelssohn’s ‘Elijah’ is another important example. Listen to this example of a chorus for women’s voices from that work, in ‘Angels’. This is in a major key and is homophonic in style.
In the 20th century the oratorio tradition continued, although the sound of the music was of course different. Sir Edward Elgar wrote several, including ‘The Dream of Gerontius’, perhaps his best known, and ‘The Kingdom’. Listen to this excerpt from the second one, a scene in the ‘upper room’ on Pentecost; the group of disciples are played by the male chorus, the female chorus are mystical spirits and the male soloists are the disciples Peter and John.
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(left) Sir Edward Elgar 1857 - 1934
Sir Michael Tippett wrote a ‘A Child of Our Time’ and while continuing the tradition of the oratorio, it has some similarity to Bach’s ‘Passions’ of the Baroque period, only instead of having chorales or hymn tunes during the work, Tippett replaces these with wonderful settings of Negro spirituals. Listen to ‘Steal Away’, sung in this recording by the National Youth Choir of Scotland.
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