The history of oratorio is long and complex because it has involved numerous variants of this genre through centuries, from its first appearances until now, and because of the confusion with the term itself.1 Even today, it is difficult to define precisely what an oratorio is because depending on the geographical place, the language used and the themes set to music, we can have very different works in both form and content. 

              As contextualization, I will retrace the history of the genre oratorio from the late 16th century until Caldara’s death in 1736. I should precise that I will not talk about oratorios that were composed outside of Italy and the Holy Roman Empire during this period. I am interested in making an overview of the evolution of this genre up until Caldara and to focus only on the oratorio form that was relevant during the period from the late 17th century until 1736 in Vienna - the so called “golden age of Music in Austria”2 (which start with Ferdinand III’s accession to the throne) - during the time that Caldara was an active composer.

What is usually defined as oratorio is the most frequent sacred form used in the late 17th and early 18th centuries: “a musical setting of a sacred text made up of dramatic, narrative and contemplative elements”.3 The musical form is in many points similar to the opera genre: alternance of recitatives and arias (often da capo) but also shows some differences: the absence of staging, no costumes and action, means it was performed as a concert.

              The genre started at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th century, at the start of the Baroque period, in Italy. Until circa 1630, in church it was frequent to hear biblical stories set to music in the form of dialogues composed of Latin texts. This was a way to respond to the opera genre that was evolving in parallel and which may have influenced churchmen to want “greater emphasis on the dramatic element in sacred music”.4 These performed sacred dialogues, quite short, had indeed musical dramatic effects wanted by the composer.

             The term “oratorio” comes from the Congregazione dell’Oratorio, founded by Filippo Neri in Rome after the Council of Trento (1545-1563), as an establishment of the counter-reform measures. Neri wanted to introduce spiritual exercises within the liturgy of the offices; the idea was to discuss spiritual texts. This session of discussion was introduced by singing Laudes. These times of spiritual exercises soon became famous and an ever-increasing crowd (of men) came to the little church to hear them. A new prayer hall (oratorio) was finally constructed above the church and in 1575, the whole Congregazione dell’Oratorio was recognized by Pope Gregory XIII as a new religious order. The congregazione was given the church Santa Maria in Vallicella in Rome, soon replaced by the Chiesa Nuova. As the importance of the congregation grew, the place of music within the prayers changed and became more important as well, “as edifying entertainment and attract people to the spiritual exercises".5

              Most of the time, the performed music of these prayers were Laude. An elaborated version of Laude started to appear after the Vespers on feast days which was called oratorio vespertino. The music of these particularly rich Laudes was composed by famous musicians of Rome (as Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Luca Marenzio, Felice Anerio, Virgilio Mazzochi) who wanted to serve these events. It is possible that the name oratorio came from the will to incorporate more and more dramatic elements into the oratories (prayers), and the name of the event itself (oratories/prayers) finally took the name of the place of these spiritual discussions (oratorio), as a metonymy that names the contents by the container. That said, the first use of this word for a musical work did not appear until 1640.

The first known performance during an oratory in the Chiesa Nuova took place in 1600 and was Cavalieri’s Rappresentatione di Anima e di Corpo. This musical work could already show the audience a new monodic style of singing and speaking the texts. However, it is not considered as the first oratorio by musicologists, because of the costumes, staging, acting and dancing during the performance in the church, and also because the name oratorio had not been yet used for a musical work.6

              In a letter to Giovanni Battista Doni, Pietro della Valle wrote in 1640 that he composed an “Oratorio della Purificazione” for an oratory time in the Chiesa Nuova.7 The piece is very short (it lasts around 12 minutes) and is not designed as an oratorio in the manuscript, but as a dialogo. The real title is Dialogo per la festa della Santissima Purificazione. Twenty years before this letter, the Teatro armonico spirituale di madrigali (1619) was published in Rome. Many of the pieces look like the ones called oratorio in the 1640’s and 1650’s. They are dialogues between biblical characters and the longest one lasts 20 minutes. Among the 94 compositions, 14 are marked dialogo and at least 7 could be named as oratorios. “The music [...] of the Teatro compositions in general, is in a concertato madrigal style, with relatively conservative, contrapuntally influenced sections for solo voice and organ bass accompaniment”.8 We can think of them as oratorios because they were written for the vespertino services, possibly performed in the Chiesa Nuova, and the print was dedicated to Filippo Neri.

             At the middle of the 17th century, two types of oratorios developed in parallel in Italy, the oratorio latino and the oratorio volgare. The difference between the two types is firstly linked to the language used: the latino are in Latin and the volgare in Italian. But the oratorio latino had also a specific place of existence and performance, it was exclusively composed for a Roman aristocratic group gathered under the name of Oratorio del santissimo Crocifisso. The oratorio volgare were performed in the Chiesa Nuova and in the church Santo Girolamo della Carità, and were normally available to Roman public, whatever their social background. In the 1640’s and 1650’s, the development of this new genre can be seen through libretti of this period: numerous poets wrote long epic-lyrical poems that were possibly set into music afterward. The first printed poems with the name oratorio were written by Francesco Balducci and were La Fede: oratorio and Oratorio: Il Trionfo. The two poems had solo parts, chorus and a narrative part named Historia. 

               The most advanced examples of oratorio volgare of the mid-17th century are those by Giacomo Carissimi (Daniele) and Marco Marazzoli (Santo Tomaso: oratorio a 5). And another anonymous work from the same period is known as the earliest oratorio based on the Passion: Oratorio per la settimana Santa. Their forms start to be similar in many ways. Firstly, the poems set in music are from the New/Old Testaments or from hagiographical stories. Secondly, we can find several characters, a chorus that comment on the action, and a soloist narrator named Testo. Thirdly, they are all in two parts (Prima parte and Seconda Parte), each of the parts ending with a chorus (sometimes named madrigal). The performances are not staged or acted and when it was performed during an oratorio evening, it is possible that a sermon took place in between the two parts. The music is really close to the one composed for operas and secular cantatas of the same period: recitative, arioso, aria style - “among the arias the formal procedures used are the through-composed, strophic variation, ground bass and ABA forms, various rondo-like schemes, and binary forms with repeated sections”.9 The chorus are in imitative style, and instruments used are basso continuo instruments with sometimes two violins for some introductions or ritornello.10 There are no instruments other than basso continuo to accompany the voice during recitatives or arias. The whole musical work lasts for about 30 minutes to no more than one hour.

The oratorio latino is not a different genre of the oratorio volgare, it just written, as we saw above, in Latin instead of Italian and it developed exactly at the same period. But we can find that the form of the text is different: the volgare used Italian poems while the latino used Latin prose. This difference is especially visible during the 1st part of the 17th century, but many composers were setting into music both latino and volgare. It is also possible that most of the oratorio latino were one-part while the volgare were two-parts oratorios.11

               In the 1660’s, the genre oratorio was now completely installed in Rome and in many other Italian cities. They continued to be composed and performed for a devotional purpose in the context of oratories, but during the later 17th and beginning of 18th centuries, “they were performed with increasing frequency in the palaces of noblemen, where they functioned as quasi-secular entertainments, often as substitutes for opera during Lent when the theatres were closed".12 In Rome, three churches stayed the main centre of creation and performances of these musical works during the second half of the 17th century: the Chiesa Nuova, Santo Girolamo della Carità and the Crocifisso. The habits of doing a sermon between the two parts started to be fixed and the oratorio began to prevail over other musical genres for the religious services.13 Outside the churches mentioned above, oratorios were performed during secular occasions in private palaces of Rome’s nobility: Queen Christina of Sweden, Cardinal Pamphili, Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni and Prince Ruspoli. On the occasion, fine food and refreshments were offered to the audience instead of a sermon between the two parts.14 During these events, the work was still not acted and staged, but sometimes the background of the stage was decorated as for Handel’s La Resurezzione in Lent 1708.15 The famous composers of oratorios in Rome were mainly Bernardo Pasquini, Alessandro Scarlatti, Alessandro Stradella, Antonio Caldara and Georg Friedrich Handel (even if he only composed two in the city) and the most important libretti writers were Cardinals Pamphili and Ottoboni, Sebastiano Lazarini and Arcangelo Spagna.

               Other important centres of oratorios were the cities of Bologna, Modena, Florence and Venice. In Bologna, the composition was sponsored by religious societies but was not exclusively limited to the oratories. Over the years, oratorios were used for a lot of religious occasions such as weddings and baptisms (of the nobility), taking religious vows, important church feasts, visiting dignitaries. In Modena, oratorios were very famous and between 1677 and 1702, more than 110 performances are known. The main composers of this city were Giovanni Battista Bononcini, Tomasio Antonio Vitali and Maurizio Cazzati and the main known poets were Giacomo Antonio Bergamori and Giovanni Battista Giardini. In Florence, where the Congregazione dell’Oratorio settled in 1632, oratorios started to be performed in the 1650’s. Until the end of the 18th century, the organisation remained the most important sponsor for oratorios and one oratorio was performed every Sunday and for specific feasts between All Saints (1st November) and Palm Sunday. In Venice, oratorios began to performed in the 1660’s in the church Santa Maria della Consolazione. Giovanni Legrenzi was one of the main composers of the city followed by Antonio Caldara, Antonio Lotti and Antonio Vivaldi. In 1677, oratorios started to be performed in the ospedali where music was taught, such as the Ospedale degli Incurabili. Rome and Venice were the two main cities in Italy for the oratorio latino.

The libretti used for oratorios are most of the time taken from the Old/New Testaments and from hagiographical or moral texts. That said, the most frequent topics in the whole history of the oratorios are saints’ stories. It is possible that this was linked to the counter-reform; the Church wanted the audience to be touched by stories of conversion and martyrs.16 Concerning bible stories, most of them are from the Old Testament, the New one being used only for the Passion time. 

In the 18th century, the narrative part named Testo, Historia, Historicus, Storico or Poeta disappeared little by little.17 The librettists wanted more dramatic effects in the dialogues between the characters. From this period, the number of characters diminished and the role of the chorus became less important, simply concluding the two parts of the oratorio. In fact, oratorios needed only a few solo singers who could themselves sing the final choruses.

Of the 21 Caldara oratorios I have had access to, 4 still have the narrator under the name of Testo:

• Cristo condannato (1717), in which the narrator is sung by an alto voice (Il Sacro Testo).

• Assalone (1720), also sung by an alto voice (Testo)

• Il Re del Dolore (1722), for which Il Sacro Testo della Passione di Cristo is sung by a bass voice.

• Gioseffo che interpreta i sogni (1726), Testo is sung by a tenor.

                 In these four oratorios, the main narrative function of these roles takes place in recitatives. There are, however, two arias for Testo in Gioseffo which introduce each part of the oratorio, and three arias for Il Sacro Testo della Passione di Cristo in Il Re del Dolore, and for Il Sacro Testo in Cristo condannato distributed within the two parts. In Assalone, Testo sings only one aria.

Musically, the oratorio is entirely linked to what was occurring in the opera at the same period. Concerning the “modern” form of this genre, two periods of oratorios seem to exist. The first one can be dated from 1660 to 1680 and the second from 1680 until 1720.18 During the first period, most of the oratorios only contained 3 to 5 soloist roles, that can be grouped together in small ensembles called madrigale or coro. Typical musical aspects are: 

• Small number of instruments other than basso continuo instruments

• Free mixing between recitative, aria and arioso style

• Brevity of the arias, often in strophic form

The second period, from 1680 to 1720 display many of the aspects above with new additions: 

• Larger and more colourful orchestra (concerto grosso instrumentation)

• Arias accompanied by orchestra and not only by basso continuo

• Sometimes recitatives accompanied by orchestra (strings)

• Alternance between recitatives/arias 

• Predominance of da capo form for arias

• More elaborate coloratura passages in arias

• Stylization of the arias to express emotions: militarism, joy, sadness, lamentations, rage, love etc. with a lot of sonorous illustrations on specific instruments (woodwinds): imitation of birds, storms, wind, waves etc.

               During the first decades of the 18th century, the differences between oratorio volgare and oratorio latino were only linguistic, the rest (dramatical elements, instruments, musical composition) being exactly the same as we can see in Handel’s La Resurrezione (1708) and Vivaldi’s Juditha triumphans (1716) that can be seen, from a musical point of view, as two religious operas, the first in Italian and the latter in Latin.

            Outside of Italy, oratorios were mainly performed in catholic courts of central Europe. As in Italy, the Italian opera, which was very popular, was replaced by oratorios during the Lent period. Vienna seems to have been a place for oratorios already in the 17th century while oratorios were performed in Dresden from the 18th century only. According to professor Howard E. Smither,

Particularly prominent for its cultivation of Italian opera, the Viennese court also became the most important centre of sacred dramatic music in the Italian language outside Italy. Emperor Leopold I (1658–1705), both an avid patron of Italian music and a composer of at least nine sacred dramatic compositions, wrote the earliest oratorio known to have been performed in Vienna, Il sacrifizio d'Abramo (1660).19

              Among the Viennese nobility, the emperors Leopold I, Joseph I, Charles VI and the Empress dowager Eleonora (Leopold I’s step-mother) were the most important sponsors for oratorios from 1658 until Charles VI’s death in 1740. For Howard E. Smither, the death of Charles VI closed “the most active period of oratorio cultivation”.20 Oratorios were effectively a means of establishing the Habsburg counter-reform in the Empire from the beginning of the 17th century onwards.21

Main composers of oratorios in Vienna:

               The librettists at the court of Vienna which wrote libretti for oratorios were Pietro Pariati, Giovanni Claudio Pasquini, Silvio Stampiglia, Apostolo Zeno and Pietro Metastasio. For Howard E. Smither, Vienna “was by far the most prominent centre of oratorio cultivation in Roman Catholic, German-speaking areas".22

One of the particularities of the Viennese oratorios is the existence of several terms to name these musical works:

• Oratorio

• Oratorio per il santissimo sepolcro

• Componimento sacro

• Rappresentazione sacra

• Azione sacra

               The term sepolcro designs in fact a specific type of oratorio which contains many differences with the “regular” Italian oratorio. The norm of an Italian oratorio in Vienna at the end of the 17th century was a two-parts musical work, performed without acting, staging or costumes; it was therefore similar in every aspect to the Italian oratorio volgare and was a Lent substitute to the opera during a semi-liturgical service at the Hofkapelle. The sepolcro, also designated as rappresentazione sacra, is similar to the oratorio volgare as well, but with a few key differences:23

• Most of the time it is in one part

• The libretto refers only to the Passion

• Only performed on Maundy Thursday or Good Friday (Holy week)

• Performed with decorated stage, acting and costumes (the main element of decoration being the Holy Sepulchre, erected in the court chapel)

            "The tradition of erecting sepulchres in the churches of Vienna to commemorate the Passion and death of Christ from Maundy Thursday to Holy Saturday can be documented as early as the beginning of the 15th century".24 The earliest known sepolcro was performed in the 1660’s, and the latest one in 1705. During the 18th century, the tradition to decorate the Hofkapelle with a sepulchre continued, but the musical works that were performed there were normal two-parts oratorios. Four of Caldara’s oratorios I had access to could be considered as sepolcri, but were not staged, nor acted:

• Cristo condannato (1717), performed during Maundy Thursday

• Il Rel del Dolore (1720), performed during Good Friday

• La Passione di Gesù Cristo Signor Nostro (1730), performed during Good Friday

• San Elena al Calvario (1731), performed during the Holy Week

               Concerning the libretti written in Vienna, changes appeared in the 18th century with Apostolo Zeno and Pietro Metastasio. Zeno was poet of the court and wrote librettos for both operas and oratorios. According to professor Howard E. Smither,

Among his aims as an oratorio librettist were the restriction of oratorios to subjects found in the Bible, the adherence to the Aristotelian unities of action, time and place, and the creation of spiritual tragedies which would be suitable even as spoken dramas, though intended to be set to music as oratorios. Zeno also opposed the introduction of divine personages in the oratorio.25

              Most oratorio librettos written by Apostolo Zeno were set to music by Antonio Caldara. The successor of Apostolo Zeno as court poet in 1730 was Pietro Metastasio, and he decided to keep most of the changes Apostolo Zeno had placed in oratorio’s libretto. Of the eight librettos he wrote for oratorios in Vienna, two were set to music by Caldara.

1.2 THE ORATORIO AS A GENRE

Creation and evolution of the genre oratorio from the 16th century until the first half of the 18th century