ORATORIO (Ital. oratorio, chapel or oratory, the place where these compositions were first performed), a kind of sacred musical composition, either 'purely dramatic or partaking both of the drama and the epic, in which the text is illustrative of some relig ious subject, sometimes taken directly from Scripture; and the music consists of recita tives, airs, ducts, trios, quartets, choruses, accompanied by an orchestra, sometimes also by an organ, and introduced by an instrumental overture. The oratorio is not intended for scenic representation.
°St. Filippo Neri, born in 1515, has been considered the founder of the oratorio. He engaged poets and composers to produce dialogues, on subjects from scriptural and legendary history, in verse, mid set to music, which were performed in his chapel or oratory on Sundays and church festivals. The subjects were Job and his Friends; The Prodigal Son; The Angel Gabriel with the Virgin; and The .31;gstem of the Incarnation. Straddle composed various oratorios, of which San Gioranni Ilattista, produced in 1670, is praised by Dr. Burney. A number of oratorios, or azioni sere, by Apostolo Zeno and Metastasio, were set to music by Caldera in the beginning of last century. Schas tian Bach's was a species of oratorio, originally performed during the service of the church, the congregation joining in the chorales. Its form arose out of the practice prevalent in the Lutheran church, of having the gospels for the day repeated on Good Friday, and some other festivals, by different persons in a recitative and dialogue style. By far the greatest master of oratorio was Handel, who perfected that species of composition, mid was the first to introduce it into England. At the age of 20, when on a visit to Italy, he produced his oratorio of La Resurrezione at Rome. E•ther, the first oratorio written by him in England, was composed for the chapel of his patron, the duke of Chandos, in 1720, the words altered from Racine. It was performed privately at Cannons in the same year, hut laid- aside, and not produced in public till 1732. An oratorio was then so complete a novelty in England. that it was deemed necessary to give the following explanation in advertising it: " By His command, at the Ring's theater in the Haymarket, on Tuesday the 2d May, will be per. formed the sacred Story of Esther. an oratorio in English. composed by Mr. Ilanclel, and to be performed by a great number of voices and instruments.—.N13. There will be no acting on the stage, but the house will be fitted up in a decent manner for the audience." For many years after the appearance of Esther, no more oratorios were pro. &Iced hy ITandel, who devoted himself to operas and other secular music; and it wax' only nftcr the temporary failure of his health, that at the ripe age of 53 he resumed the composition of oratorios. The great oratorios which have made his name immortal were r,11 produced in the decline of life, cone of them after he Was afflicted NN ith blind ness, and they were performed for the most part in the Old Haymarket theater. Debo• rah. was first performed in 1733; Athaliak, in 1734; Israel in Egypt, in 1738; The Messiah, in 1741; Samson, in 1742; Judas Maceakens, in 1746; Joshua, in 1747; Sotomon, in 1749; and Jeplaka, in 1751. The two crowning works were Israel in Egypt and The Messiah.—
the former ranks highest of all compositions of the oratorio class. The in consequence of its text being taken entirely from Scripture, was called by Handel The Sacred very near it in point of musical merit, and has attained an even more universal popularity; from the time when it was first brought out, down to the present day, it has been performed for the benefit of nearly every important cha•ita ble institution in Britain. Judas Maccabccus is perhaps best known from the flowing and martial grace of that unrivaled military march, " See the Conquering Hero Comes;" and Saul is associated in every one's mind with the most solemn of all funeral marches. The orchestra was hut imperfectly developed in Handel's time, and his oratorios had therefore originally but meager instrumental accompaniments; they have since been generally performed with additional accompaniments written by Mozart. From Han del's time downwards, it was the practice in London to have oratorios performed twice a week during Lent in the various theaters, which were only given up on the institution of the oratorio performances at Exeter Hall. Haydn composed three oratorios—The Return of Tobias, The Seven Last Words, and The Creation. The Seven Last Words, a work full of sweetness and of energy, hardly answers to the common conditions of an oratorio; it is rather a series of symphonies, intended to follow as many short sermons on the sentences uttered by our Lord on the cross, the text being a subsequent addition by the composer's brother, Michael Haydn. The Creation originated in a visit of Haydn to London in 1791, when he heard for the first time some of the works of Handel, none of which were then known in Germany. Though less grand than the oratorios of Han del, it is of fresh lovely songs, bright choruses, picturesque recitatives, and exqui site instrumentation. Beethoven's sole oratorio, The Mount of Olives, is a pure drama, rather than the mixed composition generally known under the name. Spohr's Last Judgment, produced in 1825, contains some grand music, particularly in the choruses. Costa's Eli deserves mention among modern oratorios. But since the thee of Handel no other writer of oratorios has approached Mendelssohn. The greatest works of that com poser are his oratorio; of St. Paul and Eljah; the former was first produced at Dfissel dorf in 1836, the latter at Birmingham in 1846; and at the time of his death he was engaged in a third oratorio, called Christus, which he expected would be his greatest, and of which but a few fragments have been published. The oratorios of Mendelssohn have tended greatly to revive the popularity of this kind of composition in Britain. At Exeter Hall in London, and at the musical festivals throughout England, oratorios are performed on a large scale, and with a power, a precision, and a perfection unknown elsewhere. The choruses at the provincial festivals are, for the most part, supplied by Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, and the other large towns. The greatest oratorio per formances are now those of the Triennial Festivals at the Sydenham Crystal Palace. At the festival of 1877, the chorus amounted to over 3100 voices, and there was an,orehes tra of 450 performers.