a major, usually multipart musical work for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra, which generally has a dramatic theme but which is designed for performance in concert rather than on stage. The oratorio is similar to the cantata, differing only in its greater length and more definite theme. It originated in Italy at the turn of the 17th century and was influenced by the opera and madrigal.
The oratorio with a Latin text took shape as a fusion of several liturgical motets, and the oratorio with an Italian text developed out of dramatized laude in dialogue form. At first, liturgical motets and laude were performed in special premises designed for prayer, services, discussion of sermons, and singing of sacred songs. These premises were called oratories—the term from which the name of the new genre was derived. In the sacred oratorio a biblical story performed by a soloist was combined with sections cast in dialogue form and choral sections. In Italy, the Latin oratorio reached the height of its development in the 17th century. By the beginning of the 18th century it had been almost completely replaced by the Italian oratorio. G. Carissimi and A. Scarlatti were the greatest masters of the Latin oratorio, and B. Pasquini, F. M. Veracini, A. Veracini, G. Arresti, G. Gabrieli, G. Legrenzi, G. Bononcini, and A. Stradella excelled in the composition of Italian oratorios.
In the Italian oratorio, the solo sections, recitatives, and da capo arias acquired increasing importance in the 18th century. The oratorio became similar to opera and was sometimes performed on stage. Many 18th-century Italian opera composers wrote oratorios, including A. Scarlatti, G. Pergolesi, D. Cimarosa, B. Galuppi, G. Paisiello, and A. Salieri. The German, Austrian, and French oratorios developed in the 18th century, and a special form, the passion, emerged.
G. F. Handel’s oratorios, which were written in England in the 1730’s and 1740’s, made a great contribution to the development of the genre. They united the German, the English, and, to some extent, the Italian tradition. Of outstanding importance in Handel’s creative work are his heroic oratorios with biblical texts, in which the chief motive force is the people (Israel in Egypt, the Messiah, Samson, and Judas Maccabeus). Handel also composed oratorios on texts from classical mythology. Among J. S. Bach’s works is the Christmas Oratorio. An important stage in the development of the oratorio is associated with the creative work of Haydn. Composed at the end of the 18th century, his oratorios (The Creation, The Seasons) were enriched by instrumental symphonic resources and were intended for performance not in church but in the concert hall. In the 19th century, oratorios were composed by F. Mendelssohn, H. Berlioz, F. Liszt, R. Schumann (Paradise and the Peri), C. Saint-Saëns, J. Massenet, C. Franck, C. Debussy, E. Elgar, and R. Vaughan Williams, and in the 20th century, by A. Honegger (Joan of Arc at the Stake) and E. H. Meyer (Mansfelder Oratorium).
The first Russian oratorio, Degtiarev’s Minin and Pozharskii, or Moscow Liberated, was composed in 1811. During the Soviet period, the oratorio has developed greatly and has become the favored genre for the artistic reflection of important sociohistorical events and for the comprehensible and effective presentation of significant themes. Soviet oratorios include Emel’ian Pugachev by Koval’, Tale of the Battle for the Russian Land by Shaporin, Guarding the Peace by Prokofiev, Oratorio Pathétique by Sviridov, and The Maiden and Death by Galynin.