22. Oratorio forms.

The two oratorios Handel wrote in Italy in 1707 and 1708 are in the well-established form of the Italian vernacular oratorio, very similar in style to the aria-dominated opera of the period, and, in Rome, forming a useful substitute for it at a time when public performance of opera was prohibited. Each, however, has an innovative moment exploiting the composer's special strengths. In Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, Cardinal Pamphili, the librettist and patron of the work, introduced ‘un leggiadro giovinetto’ making wondrous sounds as one of the delights offered by the allegorical character of Piacere (Pleasure). Handel could thus play a role in his own oratorio as the soloist in a short Sonata for organ and orchestra, the earliest known example of such a movement. In La resurrezione Handel made a last-minute change to the opening, allowing the overture to lead directly into the Angel's first aria, thus enhancing the sense of drama suggested by the Marchese Ruspoli's provision of painted backdrops for the performance, although the work was not actually staged. Both of these features were prophetic of elements in Handel's later English oratorios: the Sonata foreshadowed the introduction of organ concertos, and the opening of La resurrezione, though not imitated in later oratorios, stressed Handel's interest in dramatic effect.

In England, Handel did not use his Italian works as direct models for oratorio, since his prime concern was to introduce the choral music which they lacked, but he was aware of the precedent of Latin oratorios with choral sections, such as Carissimi's Jephte. The first version of Esther, produced privately in 1718, is clearly something of an experiment, drawing first on Racine's declared intention (in the play on which the libretto is based) ‘to unite the singing with the action and to use for singing the praises of the true God that section of the chorus which the pagans [i.e. classical Greek playwrights] used for singing the praises of their false divinities’. Other influences were the German passion oratorio, an example of which (the Brockes Passion) Handel had just composed and from which he took some of the music for Esther, and, for the choruses themselves, the English anthem. For arias, the da capo form of opera was a model, but vocal solos could in general be treated much more flexibly: they could lead into choruses or be episodes within them. All these precedents are reflected in the first Esther, and there is also a hint of the choral representation of different peoples which Handel was to exploit with great brilliance in later works: the chorus first appear as a group of bloodthirsty Persian officers, though for the most part they impersonate the persecuted Israelites. Esther may not be entirely satisfactory as a whole because of its clumsy structure, but it contained all the formal ingredients that Handel was to mix in many different ways in future oratorios and in secular works that took oratorio form.

English oratorio as a public entertainment began with Handel's production of a much revised version of Esther in London on 2 May 1732 (the circumstances are mentioned above, §7). The 1732 Esther included two of the coronation anthems of 1727, and its immediate successor, Deborah, included the other two as well as more music from the Brockes Passion, as if Handel was using his first English oratorios as a means of rehabilitating past work. Athalia, though still drawing a little on the Passion, moves decisively towards the conception of oratorio as an original and all-encompassing genre, especially with the addition of organ concertos in the 1735 London version as in other oratorio revivals that year. Parallel to this development runs Handel's introduction of secular works presented in concert, beginning with the revised version of Acis and Galatea in 1732 and continuing with the serenata Parnasso in festa in 1734 (partly re-using music from Athalia but also with newly composed choral music) and the setting of Dryden's Alexander's Feast in 1736.

With Saul (1738–9), Handel continued the line of dramatic oratorio from the precedent of Athalia, adding an extra measure of vividness by the inclusion of orchestral interludes implying action or marking the passage of time, and by the presence of the exotic sounds of trombones and a carillon in the orchestra. Its pair for the same season, Israel in Egypt, takes a new path, however, being the first non-dramatic English oratorio, with a libretto compiled from purely scriptural texts. It also has a substantial and unprecedented number of choral movements. Israel in Egypt achieved a commendatory notice in the London Daily Post – the only such appraisal for any oratorio in Handel's lifetime – but this was because its strong choral element had proved difficult for the London audience, for whom the contribution of solo singers was always of importance, however elevated the musical entertainment. The only successor in the same line was Messiah, which not only provided a better balance of solo and choral music but achieved its eventual status as the most famous of all oratorios by articulating its statement of faith with music absolutely direct in its appeal, and in which the sense of progress from hope through despair to triumph is meaningful even for those who do not share Christian belief.

Between Israel in Egypt and Messiah Handel returned to secular works, with a setting of Dryden's shorter Cecilian ode, A Song for St Cecilia's Day, first presented as a pair with Alexander's Feast, and with L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato (1740, revised 1741). This last is surely the most personal of the secular works. James Harris's perception in suggesting selections from Milton's two poems acutely recognized the presence of both ‘Allegro’ and ‘Penseroso’ aspects in Handel's make-up, and rightly expected that both would find equal expression in the music and would weave into a well-balanced whole. The fact that the contrasted moods are created through contemplation of images from an idealized English landscape also allowed Handel to reflect a serene appreciation of the country in which he had chosen to settle.

In the 1740s, with opera abandoned, Handel seems to have been determined to explore the possibilities of oratorio form just as widely as he had in the 1730s, but he was not always able to carry his audiences with him. Oratorio proper, on sacred subjects, gained interest from a new middle-class public suspicious of theatrical entertainments, but happy to find a format in which musical virtuosity could be enjoyed within an aura of respectable piety. The sacred nature of the subjects provided the reason why, even if written in dramatic form, an oratorio was not to be acted. Semele and Hercules, however, were secular dramas; there was no obvious reason why they should be presented in Lent ‘after the manner of an oratorio’ and only Handel's keenest supporters were prepared to accept them. Handel therefore refrained from new secular works in oratorio form after 1745 (other than for The Choice of Hercules, reworked from the abandoned music for Alceste as an addition to Alexander's Feast) but, with some credit to his librettists, still managed to find the variety that was important to him. In his last four oratorios – Solomon, Susanna, Theodora and Jephtha – he composed leading soprano parts, all for Giulia Frasi, combining loving warmth and spiritual strength (divided between three roles in the case of Solomon), but each within works of very different atmospheres: the public splendour of Solomon, the intimacy of Susanna, the contest of faith and oppression in Theodora and the heroic acceptance of divine fate in Jephtha.

It does not appear that the special quality of these late works was widely recognized by their first audiences. (In the case of Theodora it clearly was not.) After their initial performances they were seldom revived, with the partial exception of Jephtha, and when they were, it was in substantially cut or altered form. It may be that the clash between dramatic form and concert presentation that caused difficulty with the secular works also affected appreciation of sacred works seeming to demand visualisation of their action. According to Hawkins, Handel himself ‘used to say, that, to an English audience, music joined to poetry was not an entertainment for an evening, and that something that had the appearance of a plot or fable was necessary to keep their attention awake’. But the liveliness with which Handel told his ‘fables’ in music was inevitably dissipated in concert performance, especially for audiences not used to continuous concentration on theatrical presentations. Even in Handel's last years the standard oratorio repertory began to be reduced to Messiah, Samson and Judas Maccabaeus, where action is mainly absent or narrated. Only in the late 20th century, when recordings, radio broadcasts and concert performances of opera have made the concept of unseen musical drama familiar, has Handel's wide vision of what oratorio form could embrace become fully appreciated.

Handel, George Frideric