The Oratorio
- General Lifespan
- 1650-1940
- Definition/History
-
An oratorio is like an opera - but less. There is singing and a storyline
but not much else. No staging, no costuming - sounds exciting, huh?
There is some action - but you never see it - kind of like an
existentialist play. All of the action is aired via a narrator (if you're
Italian, you'd call this person a "testo" - if you're Latin, "storicus"*).
Other ways to tell an opera from an oratorio:- Oratorios have sacred text - stories based on the religious books.
"Oratorio" literally means "hall for prayer" - Oratorios have more work for the chorus than operas.
The chorus is the nameless bunch of people who aren't a character and all sing together - like a...chorus (maybe I didn't need to explain this point). - Oratorios have a lot of recitative.
Recitative is the part of operas that most people make fun of. Its where a person will sing-talk lines, usually on one note, and usually pretty rapidly. Its used to get a bunch of miscellaneous text to the audience. It is rarely beautiful, but it works.
Why, then - if an oratorio is generally lamer than an opera, would it have caught on at all? Lent and the English (independently). Lent is a religious season during which (in days of yore) theaters were closed - giving the church a monopoly on entertainment.** To understand why the English popularized the oratorio, we need to look at Handel.***
Handel was busy writing operas. He had four staged in successive years - each less successful than the last.
[speculation]
"Hmmm... my operas aren't doing so well. Hey, oratorios are easier to write than operas - and anyone who is any good today is writing operas. If I write an oratorio, it'll be guaranteed to be performed - especially if I make it Lent-y," Handel may have thought.
[end of speculation]
This oratorio, "Israel in Egypt," was a success. Handel was later commissioned to write the "Messiah". Every English speaking person of the time loved the "Messiah" because:- It was in English and
- it was a great piece of music (a rare combination for the composer-starved island).
The result: oratorio fever. English composers were writing oratorios for the next 150 years. The reason you haven't heard about these oratorios is that few (if any) were any good.
- Oratorios have sacred text - stories based on the religious books.
- Composers of Oratorios
- Scarlatti, Bach (JS, JCE, KPE), Telemann, Handel, Hayden, Mendelssohn, Schumann
- Remember
- An Oratorio is a religious opera, without the action.
* This is not a joke. I know "Storicus" sounds like a pseudo-Greek
narration character from "Xena" - but, again, I am not making this up.
** Lent stories were very popular subjects of oratorios - followed by
Christmas stories. Oratorios started moving away from sacred subjects in
the 1800's and just never recovered.
*** Handel is not English.
Post Script: Questions
- Did Schumann write oratorios?
- Yep. He wrote 2 oratorios.
Das Paradies und die Peri (1843) and
Der Rose Pilgerfahrt (1851 - right around when he finally finished his 4th symphony)
I know you're thinking: Wasn't Schubert the guy who wrote masses and religious pieces and such? Well, yeah - Schumann's oratorios were secular (non-religious) oratorios. - Secular oratorios?
- Yes; secular oratorios.
Don't blame me - I just research this stuff. - Didn't you just say one of the defining features of an oratorio is that it is religious?
- Um... Thank you for stopping by. Come back soon. Nice whether we're having... Gotta go! Bye!