Oratorio: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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{{for|the thoroughbred racehorse|Oratorio (horse)}}

{{distinguish|Oratory (disambiguation){{!}}Oratory|Ontario}}

An '''oratorio''' ({{IPA-|it|oraˈtɔːrjo}}) is a [[musical composition]] with [[Drama|dramatic]] or [[narrative]] text for [[choir]], [[Solo (music)|soloists]] and [[orchestra]] or other [[Musical ensemble|ensemble]].<ref name="OED">{{cite encyclopedia|title=oratorio, (n.)|year=2023|encyclopedia=[[Oxford English Dictionary]]|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|doi=10.1093/OED/8713946143|quote=A large-scale, usually narrative musical work for orchestra and voices, typically on a sacred theme and performed with little or no costume, scenery, or action.}}</ref>

Like most [[Opera|operas]], an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters (e.g. soloists), and [[Aria|arias]]. However, opera is [[musical theatre]], and typically involves significant [[Spectacle|theatrical spectacle]], including [[Theatrical scenery|sets]], [[Prop|props]], and [[Costume|costuming]], as well as staged interactions between characters. In oratorio, there is generally minimal [[Staging (theatre, film, television)|staging]], with the chorus often assuming a more central dramatic role, and the work is typically presented as a concert piece – though oratorios are sometimes staged as operas, and operas are not infrequently presented in [[Concert version|concert form]].

A particularly important difference between opera and oratorio is in the typical subject matter of the text. An opera [[libretto]] may deal with any conceivable dramatic subject (e.g. [[history]], [[mythology]], [[Nixon in China|Richard Nixon]], [[Anna Nicole|Anna Nicole Smith]] and the Bible); the text of an oratorio often deals with [[sacred]] subjects, making it appropriate for performance in the [[church (building)|church]], which remains an important performance context for the genre. [[Catholic]] composers looked to the lives of [[saint|saints]] and stories from the [[Bible]] while. [[Protestant]] composers onlyoften looked to Biblical topics, but sometimes looked to the lives of notable religious figures, such as [[Carl Loewe|Carl Loewe's]] [[Jan Hus (oratorio)|"Jan Hus"]], an oratorio about the early reformer, [[Jan Hus]]. Oratorios became extremely popular in early 17th-century Italy partly because of the success of opera and the Catholic Church's prohibition of [[spectacle|spectacles]] during [[Lent]]. Oratorios became the main choice of music during that annual period for opera audiences.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}

Conventionally, oratorio implies the sincere religious treatment of sacred subjects, such that non-sacred oratorio is generally qualified as '[[secular]] oratorio': a piece of terminology that would, in some historical contexts, have been regarded as [[oxymoron|oxymoronic]], or at least paradoxical,<ref name="SmitherVol2">{{cite book|last=Smither|first=Howard E.|title=A History of the Oratorio|volume=2: The Oratorio in the Baroque Era - Protestant Germany and England|publisher=The University of North Carolina Press|page=350|quote=Seven works by Handel are sometimes classified as "secular oratorios": Acts and Galatea, Alexander's Feast, Ode for St. Cecilia's Day, L'Allegro, Semele, Hercules, and The Choice of Hercules.63 Nevertheless, none of these compositions was originally called an oratorio by its composer. '''In Handel's England the term secular oratorio was not used and would have seemed self-contradictory.''' Thus in a genre classification of Handel's works based on the terminology charac- teristic in England of his time, these seven compositions would be excluded from the oratorio category.}}</ref> and viewed with a degree of [[Scare quotes|scare-quoted]] skepticism.<ref name="MusicalTimes1878">{{cite journal|title=Rev. of ''[[Semele (Handel)|Semele]]''. An Oratorio. Edited... by Ebenezer Prout.|journal=[[The Musical Times]]|date=1 June 1878|volume=19|issue=424|doi=10.2307/3357342|page=338|jstor=3357342 |quote=For want of a better term this work may be called a 'Secular Oratorio;' but... Arnold, not wishing to style it an [[Opera]], mentions it as a 'dramatic performance' and certainly the nature of the ''libretto'' precludes the possibility of our surrounding it with any religious associations. [[Victor Schœlcher]], in his ''Life of Handel''... dwells on the absurdity of the feeling which, in the composer's time, prompted persons to forbid ''[[Esther (Handel)|Esther]]'' or ''[[Judas Maccabaeus (Handel)|Judas Maccabaeus]]'' to be played in action, whilst they could listen with equanimity to ''Semele'' even in [[Lent]], because it was 'after the manner of an Oratorio.'}}</ref> Despite this enduring and implicit context, oratorio on secular subjects has been written from the genre's [[#Origins|origins]].

==History==

===Etymology===

The word ''oratorio'' comes from the [[Latin]] verb ''ōrō'' (present infinitive ''ōrāre''), meaning to orate or [[public speaking|speak publicly]], to pray, or to beg or plead, related to the [[Attic Greek]] noun ἀρά (''ará'', “prayer”).<ref name="OED"/><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=ōrō|last=Lewis|first=Charles T.|encyclopedia=An Elementary Latin Dictionary|location=New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago|publisher=American Book Company|year=1890|via=[[Perseus Digital Library]], [[Tufts University]]|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0060:entry=oro}}</ref> (Hence the [[Oratory (disambiguation)|disambiguation ofentry [[for 'oratory']], including [[oratory (worship)]].) The musical composition was "named from the kind of musical services held in the church of the [[Oratory of St. Philip Neri]] in [[Rome]] (''Congregazione dell'Oratorio'') in the latter half of the 16th cent." The word is only attested in English from 1727, with the equivalent 'oratory' in prior use, from 1640.<ref name="OED"/>

===Origins===

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===21st century===

When [[Dudley Buck]] composed his oratorio ''[[The Light of Asia (oratorio)|The Light of Asia]]'' in 1886, it became the first in the history of the genre to be based on the life of [[Buddha]].<ref>Smither, Howard E. (2000). [https://books.google.com/books?id=Khz3kZNd0Z8C&dq=Buddhist+oratorio&pg=PA463 ''A History of the Oratorio: The Oratorio in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries''], pp. 453 and 463. University of North Carolina Press. {{ISBN|0807825115}}</ref> Several late 20th and early 21st-century oratorios have since been based on Buddha's life or have incorporated Buddhist texts. These include [[Somei Satoh]]'s 1987 ''Stabat Mater'',<ref>''[[The New York Times]]'' (3 April 1987). [https://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/03/arts/oratorio-merges-christ-and-buddha.html "Oratorio Merges Christ and Buddha"]. Retrieved 3 May 2013.</ref> [[Dinesh Subasinghe]]'s 2010 ''[[Karuna Nadee]]'', and [[Jonathan Harvey (composer)|Jonathan Harvey]]'s 2011 ''Weltethos''.<ref>Clements, Andrew (22 June 2012). [https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/jun/22/weltethos-review "''Weltethos'' – review"]. ''[[The Guardian]]''. Retrieved 3 May 2013.</ref> The 21st century also saw a continuation of Christianity-based oratorios with [[John Adams (composer)|John Adams]]'s ''[[El Niño (oratorio)|El Niño]]'' and ''[[The Gospel According to the Other Mary]]''. Other religions represented include [[Ilaiyaraaja]]'s ''[[Thiruvasakam in Symphony|Thiruvasakam]]'' (based on the texts of [[Hinduism|Hindu]] hymns to [[Shiva]]). Secular oratorios composed in the 21st century include [[Nathan Currier]]'s ''[[Gaian Variations]]'' (based on the [[Gaia hypothesis]]), [[Richard Einhorn]]'s ''[[The Origin (Einhorn)|The Origin]]'' (based on the writings of [[Charles Darwin]]), [[Jonathan Mills (composer)|Jonathan Mills]]' ''Sandakan Threnody'' (based on the [[Sandakan Death Marches]]), [[Neil Hannon]]'s ''To Our Fathers in Distress'', and [[David Lang (composer)|David Lang]]'s [[The Little Match Girl Passion]] (2008). The oratorio ''[[Laudato si' (oratorio)|Laudato si']]'', composed in 2016 by [[Peter Reulein]] on a [[libretto]] by [[Helmut Schlegel]], includes the full Latin text of the [[Magnificat]], expanded by writings of [[Clare of Assisi]], [[Francis of Assisi]] and [[Pope Francis]].<ref name="LS-score">{{cite book | last1 = Reulein | first1 = Peter | author-link = Peter Reulein | last2 = Schlegel | first2 = Helmut | author-link2 = Helmut Schlegel | title = Laudato si' / Ein franziskanisches Magnificat | publisher = [[Patrick Dehm|Dehm Verlag]] | location = [[Limburg an der Lahn]] | year = 2016 | isbn = 978-3-943302-34-9 | pages = 230 | ismn = 979-0-50226-047-7}}</ref><ref name="Laudato si-Liebfrauen">{{Cite web | url = http://www.liebfrauen.net/meldung_volltext.php?si=5807238ed0bee&id=57f955bfc9ddd&view=&lang=&akt=musikkunstkultur_musikmeldungen&k1=main&k2=musikkunstkultur&k3=musikmeldungen&k4= | title = Festkonzert zum Jubiläum des Referates Kirchenmusik / Laudato si' – Oratorium von Peter Reulein (Uraufführung) | publisher = [[Liebfrauen, Frankfurt]] | year = 2016 | language = de | access-date = 19 October 2016}}</ref> ''[[Bruder Martin]]'' was composed by [[Thomas Gabriel (composer)|Thomas Gabriel]], setting a text by [[Eugen Eckert]] about scenes from the life of [[Martin Luther]], for the 500th anniversary of the [[Reformation]] in 2017.<ref name="Strube">{{Cite web

| url = https://www.strube.de/uploads/tx_eshop/I6946.pdf

| title = Bruder Martin – Luther-Musical-Oratorium in sieben Bildern und einem Prolog

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| language = de

| access-date = 10 October 2020

}}</ref> In 2017, [[Jörg Widmann]]'s oratorio [[Arche (oratorio)|ARCHE]] premiered. A transfer of sacrality to secular contexts takes place.<ref name="Groote">{{cite book | last=Groote | first=Inga Mai | title=Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Europäische Geschichte Mainz Beihefte | chapter=The Sound of the Sacred. Transfers of Sacrality in Contemporary Choral Music | chapter-url = https://www.vr-elibrary.de/doi/pdf/10.13109/9783666302459.103 | publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht | publication-place=Göttingen | volume=140 | date=9 October 2023 | pages=103–116 | isbn=978-3-525-30245-3 | doi=10.13109/9783666302459.103}}</ref>

}}</ref>

==See also==

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* McGuire, Charles Edward. "Elgar, Judas, and the Theology of Betrayal." In ''19th-Century Music'', vol. XXIII, no. 3 (Spring, 2000), pp.&nbsp;236–272.

* [[George Putnam Upton|Upton, George P]]. ''[https://www.gutenberg.org/files/22793/22793-h/22793-h.htm The Standard Oratorios]'', Chicago, 1893

* Gilman, Todd S. "Handel's ''[[Hercules (Handel)|Hercules]]'' and Its Semiosis." [[The Musical Quarterly]], [[Oxford University Press]], Vol. 81, No. 3 (Autumn 1997): pp. 449-481. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/742326 JSTOR]

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