Passion oratorio

...of setting the words of each character for two or more voices. His oratorios achieve a balance between austerity and exuberance, but by the late 17th century this balance had been disturbed. Passion oratorio texts (dealing with the death of Jesus) of this period often abandon biblical words for a mixture of rhymed paraphrase and lyrical commentary of a more or less sentimental nature.

 The large-scale musical composition for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra using a sacred or semisacred text is known as an oratorio. It is not intended for use during religious ceremonies, but texts are usually based on scripture. The narration used to shift the vocal setting from scene to scene is most often sung in recitative, or free declamatory, style. Recitatives are sung by various voices to prepare for solo arias and choruses. The word oratorio comes from the oratory of a church in Rome where St. Philip Neri instituted musical entertainments in the mid-16th century for the reform of the youth of the city. The principal types of oratorio are the Italian, basically a form of religious opera; the German, which developed from treatment of the Passion story; and the English, created by George Frideric Handel as a synthesis of several forms. All three types reached their climax in the works of Johann Sebastian Bach in Germany and Handel in England.

The cantata is another form of devotional music. Developed in northern Germany in the 17th century, it was given its greatest stature by Johann Sebastian Bach. In some 200 cantatas written for liturgical use throughout the church year, Bach explored a wide range of instrumental, solo vocal, and choral effects. He also used the chorus to great effect in his settings of the Passion According to St. John and the Passion According to St. Matthew.

(1685–1759). A musical giant of the late baroque period, George Frideric Handel was born in Germany but spent most of his adult life in England. He successfully combined German, French, Italian, and English musical styles in about 40 operas, 20 oratorios, and numerous other vocal pieces, instrumental works, and church music.

The major opera composer in England in the early 18th century, however, was not an Englishman but a German. George Frideric Handel wrote his first opera in Hamburg in 1705, but he had a greater triumph in London when his Rinaldo (1711) was produced. In the next 40 years Handel wrote more than 35 operas, many of which he produced with an opera company he himself ran. Handel labored almost exclusively on pieces of this sort from 1711 to 1737, when he turned his attention to oratorios. While his oratorios were long thought to contain Handel's finest and most popular music—Handel's Messiah is not only his most popular oratorio but one of the most popular works of any sort—in the late 20th century his operas were finally recognized for their superior imagination and insight.

(1886–1971). The foremost French organ virtuoso of his time, Marcel Dupré was famed for his ability to improvise. Dupré was also influential as a teacher, serving as professor of organ at the Paris Conservatory from 1926 to 1954. From 1934 until his death in 1971, he served as the organist at the church of St-Sulpice in Paris as well.