269
SCHUMANN 271
Paradise and the Peri 273
SPOHR 280
Last Judgment 283
SULLIVAN 290
The Prodigal Son 292
The Light of the World 294
VERDI 301
Manzoni Requiem 303
SACRED MUSIC IN AMERICA 309
APPENDIX 329

THE STANDARD ORATORIOS.

THE ORATORIO.

The oratorio in its modern form is a musical setting of a sacred story or
text in a style more or less dramatic. Its various parts are assigned to
the four solo voices and to single or double chorus, with accompaniment
of full orchestra, sometimes amplified by the organ. Like the opera, it
has its recitative, linking together and leading up to the various
numbers. The origin of the word is to be found in the "oratory," or place
of prayer, where these compositions were first performed. Crescimbeni,
one of the earliest musical writers, says: "The oratorio had its origin
from San Filippo Neri,[1] who, in his chapel, after sermons and other
devotions, in order to allure young people to pious offices, and to
detain them from earthly pleasures, had hymns, psalms, and such like
prayers sung by one or more voices." In tracing its evolutionary stages,
its root will be found in the moralities, mysteries, and miracle-plays of
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, which were instituted for the
purpose of impressing Biblical events in symbolical form upon the early
converts to the Christian Church. These representations were entirely
dramatic in character, and their subjects, though always sacred, were
often grotesquely treated, and sometimes verged on buffoonery. Among the
actors, God, Christ, Satan, Mary, and the angels nearly always appeared;
later, the various virtues and vices were personified. The
representations were usually given in the streets or in fields, and
sometimes on the water. The highest dig