Oratorio and cantata (module V) 3106-1MOIK-W

The oratorio is born in Italy in the first half of the 17th century as a new genre of dramatic musical work originally an alternative to opera and corresponding to the spirit of the Counter-Reformation. The Apennine Peninsula and the extra-Alpine centers dominated by Italian musical culture (court, church, secular brotherhoods) remain the main arena for the development of this genre in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, performing a wide variety of functions (religious didactics, high artistic entertainment, political propaganda). Nevertheless, this did not prevent the idea of oratorio as a specific genre of non-liturgical religious music from spreading into traditions other than the circle of Italian musical culture, absorbing elements of native musical traditions (e.g., German, French, English) and thus creating new qualities, corresponding to the needs of other audiences, raised in different conditions and often of different confessions than Catholicism. Moreover, oratorio proved to be a genre as vital as opera, developing successfully not only in early modern Europe, but also in closer times. In the 19th century, due to social changes, the perception and role of music changes. A new audience appears (bourgeois audiences), the artist gains considerable independence, while the art of sound is seen as the most perfect of languages capable of conveying not only feelings, but also extra-musical content. t has also ceased to be subordinate to religious rites or court life. It is increasingly independent, with the concert hall becoming the venue for its presentation. Genres such as the oratorio and the cantata are evolving in the era of romantic changes, including aesthetics. This is revealed, among other things, in musical language, formal and aesthetic hybridity (the interplay between opera and non-stage genres), or literary content (fairy-tale, references to Oriental culture). In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, these trends deepen and are enriched by new elements both in sound material (new compositional techniques, new media, elements of pop culture) or structural experiments, and literary content (the trauma of World War II).
The class “Oratorio and Cantata” is facultative. Mandatory participation in the class applies to those who have chosen Module V. One can also choose these classes as an independent facultative course.
The conversational nature of the classes allows a certain possibility of shaping their subject matter in consultation with the class participants, reconciling their interests with the historical specialization and individual scientific research of the lecturer. Therefore, only the main thematic directions are indicated here, from which specific topics can be selected or which can also be expanded.
- From Latin motets to Latin dialogues and oratorios
- Between sanctity, eroticism and politics, or the peculiarities of Italian oratorio and cantata with special reference to the works of A. Scarlatti
- Oratorio or cantata? around Roman Christmas oratorios
- German Protestant oratorio vs. Protestant cantata;
- Passion oratorio or passion oratorio using the works of J.S. Bach and G.F. Handel as examples;
- G.F. Handel's English oratorios
- J. Haydn the spiritual heir to the Handelian tradition.
- Technical and aesthetic changes occurring within the genre in the 19th century - religious and secular oratorios; monumentalization vs. simplification of the structure of the works, operatic elements on the example of works by Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Liszt, Schumann