BY MYLES B. FOSTER, Organist of the Foundling Hospital.
In a former number, in prefacing reviews of new music, we said
sufficient upon the subject of listening to music to call the attention
of our many readers to the performances going on so frequently in all
parts of the world, and now we persuade ourselves that there may be some
to whom a short account of the various and varied forms, to which our
attention as audience is most frequently invited, would be of interest,
even though they have some knowledge of the subject already; and that
there may be others to whom these very incomplete sketches may appear as
information, and as an incentive to further investigation.
For our first sketch we have chosen the oratorio, for it is undoubtedly
the highest form of musical dramatic art, and is founded upon and
contains the greatest and deepest truths of the Christian life. As
regards the actual music forms employed, we find, indeed, similar ones
in the operas, such as the various forms of recitative, the aria, the
duet, and the chorus, and even the scena; but in the sacred works, who
are the heroes and heroines? Are they not the instruments of the Divine
power, the messengers of the good tidings? And what are the subjects?
Are they not the struggles, the trials, the victories of noble souls?
With such sacred characters, with such lofty thoughts, the composers of
the oratorio, dealing, not with the semblance of truth that the opera
contains, but with the truth itself, are bound to express their feelings
and emotions in the grandest and most perfect thoughts.
Purely sentimental ideas, and the whole list of passions and struggles
in human existence, rather form the basis of opera than the proper
subjects for oratorio, and the modern attempts to transform the sacred
ideal into the region of operatic and dramatic realism seem to fall
singularly short of expectation. To our minds, the strongest period in
the history of oratorio was the time of Handel and Bach, and writers of
to-day have yet to graft on to their work the more careful study, and
the strengthening influence of these noble masterpieces in stronger
cuttings, to make the struggling young plant a healthy and beautiful
tree. Let us progress, by all means, but true progression is but the
joining of all that is good in the preceding age with all the fresh
beauty God bestows upon us in this our day.
We seem to be comparing or contrasting the secular form opera and the
sacred oratorio, and it is interesting to know that the origin of both
may be traced back to the same source--viz., early miracle plays and
moralities. For some time after the introduction of Christianity into
Eastern Europe, the new converts seem to have retained their fondness
for the heathen practice used in religious, as in secular, celebrations
of theatrical representations, which were chiefly upon mythological
subjects, and all of which angered and distressed the priests of the new
religion. However, the latter soon found out that it was necessary to
reach the minds of these people through their more acutely trained
senses and the medium of their old traditions, and thus in these early
ages the dramatic element worked its way into the church worship.
Spiritual plays were arranged by the priests in all parts of
Christianised Europe, who chose scenes and stories from both Old and New
Testaments, and from the lives of the saints and holy men. The plays
were acted upon a stage, usually erected under the choir of the church.
As women were not permitted to appear, priests took all the characters,
male and female. We learn, from many reliable sources, that these sacred
representations had a great effect upon the pious worshippers.
In the course of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and chiefly in
the west of Europe, profane elements crept in amongst the holy legends,
and these religious entertainments also developed so greatly, that
hundreds of actors would be engaged in representations lasting over
several days, whilst the eager audiences were so large that the churches
could not contain them, and the stage had to be erected in the
market-places, and out of doors.
The direction passed more and more into the hands of the laity, who
employed jongleurs, histrions, and strolling vagabonds, whose acting
included gross buffoonery, and whose profanity completely choked the
religious growth first implanted by these miracle plays. The stages, it
should be explained, were of curious construction, being divided into
three stories, the upper one containing the heavenly characters, the
middle one being for the people upon earth, and the lowest for the
denizens of hell.
At the beginning of the sixteenth century the whole Catholic world was
influenced by those reforms so necessary to the Christian Church of that
time, and so bravely contended for and gained by Luther. The
demoralisation which weakened all the church's fabric was deeply
deplored by the Catholic clergy, and we find at the close of this
century St. Philip Neri founding a congregation of priests in Rome and
drawing youths to church by dramatising in simple form such stories as
the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, etc., which were set to music in
four parts with alternate solos, first by Animuccia (a pupil of
Goudimel), and later on by the great Palestrina. These "sacred actions"
or plays were not performed in the church itself, but in an adjoining
chamber, called in Italian "oratorio," an oratory, and the title has
since then adhered to this species of sacred work.
Our girls will be pleased to know that the first oratorio, set to music
by Emilio del Cavalieri, was written by a lady, Laura Guidiccioni. It
was acted for the first time in the year 1600, probably in the oratory
of the Church of Santa Maria della Vallicella, in Rome. The name of the
work is "The Representation of the Soul and the Body." It was to be
played in appropriate costumes, and certain choruses were to be
accompanied, in a reverent and sedate manner, by solemn dances. Some of
the characters were Time, Pleasure, the World, Human Life, the Body,
etc.
As the various forms of music, already named as common to the opera and
oratorio, developed in the former, so in proportion they expanded and
became freer in the latter; those portions which had been mainly founded
upon plain song became more expressive and dramatic, and the melody
assumed a flowing and cantabile character. But whereas you would imagine
that a closer connection between the secular and sacred would be the
result of this change, nevertheless, the composer's conviction that the
music must strive to be of adequate importance to the sacred words and
subjects caused a line to be drawn, ever growing more and more marked,
as time and growth in grace and knowledge went on, between the secular
and sacred musical drama.
In the seventeenth century we find Carissimi greatly advancing oratorio,
and composing really noble music. You may remember a revival of his
"Jephtha," by Mr. Henry Leslie, a few years back. Scarlatti, Stradella,
and others also contributed to this period. But, notwithstanding its
Italian birth and infancy, it remained for Germany to bring oratorio to
a vigorous manhood, and to its lofty position in the world of music. The
compositions of Handel and Bach, early in the eighteenth century, placed
this sacred art form upon a pinnacle of such height and strength, that
few composers have the stamina or knowledge wherewith to reach it.
Having gazed at this, for a time, culminating summit, let us go back to
the early days again for a moment to notice a branch of this tree, a
member of this sacred family, whose growth has been parallel with that
of the subject of our sketch, viz., the Passion oratorio, one dealing
with the sufferings and death of our blessed Redeemer. Foremost amongst
the miracle plays, in which originated the sacred drama, was the
representation, during Holy Week, of the Passion of our Lord. To this
day we have interesting relics of this custom, such as the Oberammergau
play in South Bavaria, the performances in the Sistine Chapel in Rome,
and in some parts of Spain. The oldest Protestant composition on this
subject was published in 1570.
At the commencement of the seventeenth century a great development
followed in the writings of Heinrich Schütz, who wrote music to the
Passion, as told by all four evangelists, and whose tercentenary was
celebrated last year by commencing the publication of all his works. He
did much towards the great musical development in Germany. Following in
his footsteps came Sebastiani, at the end of the century, and Keiser at
the commencement of the eighteenth. In Keiser's Passion we find, in
addition to the Bible narrative, reflective passages for a chorus,
holding much the same functions as the old Greek chorus, with
interpolated solos for "the Daughter of Sion" and "the Believing Soul,"
some of which are used later on by Bach, especially in his setting of
the subject according to St. John's Gospel. John Sebastian Bach added,
moreover, many well-known chorales in which the people could join, and
these favourite old hymn tunes had the greatest power over the hearts of
the worshippers.
Now we have returned to the period at which we left oratorio, and side
by side with Bach's great Passion music stand up those massive
monuments, the oratorios of Handel, of which so much has been written,
and many of which you all know and love so well. It is worthy of notice,
if only to show how recently (viz., almost halfway through the
eighteenth century) action, and costume, and other accessories were
tolerated in connection with the sacred subjects, to tell you that at
the performance of his first English oratorio, "Esther," at the theatre
in the Haymarket, Handel appended the following note to the playbills:--
"N.B. There will be no acting on the stage," this being called shortly
after "oratorio fashion," even when applied to performances of secular
dramatic subjects which were to be sung, and not acted.
After these great works of Handel, no important oratorio was heard in
England until Haydn's "Creation," in 1798. Then, in the present century,
Spohr followed with his "Crucifixion," "Last Judgment," and "Fall of
Babylon;" and then Mendelssohn, that greatest disciple of Bach, whose
"Elijah" and "St. Paul" quite revived the taste for oratorio, and gave
an impetus to it, which extends to our day.
To end this fragmentary sketch, we may fairly say that oratorio should
contain two important elements:--