Section II: Oratorio
Wednesday, 3rd November 2010
3.00 - 6.00 pm
DHI, Musikgeschichtliche Abteilung, Sala d'Ascolto
Program
15.00 Il cielo e la terra: pagine strumentali negli oratori di Alessandro Scarlatti
Luca della Libera
15.30 Fürstliche Repräsentationen im Exil: Pietro Torris Oratorium »Le Martir
des Maccabées«
Sebastian Biesold
16.00 Music as confession - Christ-oratorios as an oratorical sub-genre in the
19th century
Daniel Ortuno-Stühring
16.30 Coffee break
17.00 Römische Oratorien am Hof der Habsburger in Wien. Zur Einführung und
Etablierung des Oratoriums am Wiener Kaiserhof in der zweiten Hälfte des 17. Jh.
Marko Deisinger
17.30 Schumanns Oratorien »Das Paradies und die Peri« und »Der Rose
Pilgerfahrt«: eine Situierung der Werke im sozialhistorischen Kontext
Eva Verena Schmid
Abstracts
Luca della Libera (Milano): The heaven and the earth: instrumental pieces in the oratorios of Alessandro Scarlatti
The Oratorios by Alessandro Scarlatti contain many instrumental pieces that can be divided into two thematic categories: on the one hand those which are naturalistic and descriptive, and on the other, those that are connected with the celestial sphere. The former are present in Giuditta (»Sinfonia bellica«), Sedecia (»Sinfonia guerresca«), Il giardino di rose (»Temporale«), while the latter are to be found in Maddalena (»l’invocazione agli spiriti beati«) and particularly in Primo omicidio. Here we find three particularly significant moments: the »Sinfonia grave, et insieme soave« that precedes the voice of God, who orders Abel’s sacrifice; then a »Sinfonia tetra, e concitata« before Lucifero’s voice, who invites Caino to kill his brother. At the end, after Abele’s murder, the libretto contains the indication of a »Sinfonia, ch’imita colpi, poi concitata con Istromenti da fiato, ch’imitino il Tuono«. There is, however, no such indication in the autograph manuscript, which only gives the indication Andante staccato, and after a few bars Presto, without any orchestral instructions. The imitation of »tuoni« (thunders) that express divine rage in reaction to the murder is realized according to the topos of »Giove tonante«, used also in the serenata La gloria di Primavera. The aim of this paper is to illustrate how Scarlatti’s choice of compositional techniques is functional to these two different dramatic situations.
Sebastian Biesold (Dresden): Representation at the court of a prince in exile: Pietro Torri's oratorio »Le martir des Maccabées«
During the War of the Spanish Succession in alliance with King Louis XIV of France the Bavarian Elector Maximilian II Emanuel suffered a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Blenheim (1704): The following exile (Spanish Netherlands, France) and the exclusion from the Holy Roman Empire meant a tremendous loss of reputation to the ancient and powerful Wittelsbach family. The question how these special circumstances had influence on the medium of music as an important part of courtly representation is not – as usual – going to be discussed on the basis of an Italian opera but on Torri’s oratorio Le martir des Maccabées. Not only due to its French text this piece, which has been composed in the years between 1704 and 1715, has an outstanding position among the oratorios of Torri, who was maître de chapelle at the Wittelsbachian court even during the time of the exile. The analysis of selected parts of the oratorio shall exemplify how music at the court of a prince in exile had to work as an instrument of “image correction” and taking position politically and dynastically, e.g. towards the Houses of Habsburg and Bourbon. To this, the work of Torri, which witnesses an extraordinary assimilation of Italian and French elements, is very much appropriate.
Daniel Ortuno-Stühring (Weimar): Music as confession - Christ-oratorios as an oratorical sub-genre in the 19th century
In the pages of the Musikalischen Tagesfragen of April 1900, the composer and critic Cyrill Kistler set forth his views on several recent sacred compositions about the life of Christ: »[Friedrich] Kiel has made a Protestant Christ, Liszt a Catholic one, and [Anton] Rubinstein a Jewish one. [Felix] Draeseke, however, has given us Christ as a true hero, God, and Redeemer-the historical and cultural Christ, the Christ of all humanity. This is his colossal achievement.« The four works named by Kistler may be termed »Christ-Oratorios«- that is, not confined to a single aspect of the life of Christ (such as his birth in a Christmas oratorio or his death in a Passion), but rather presenting his entire life. The four works, each regarded as a principal masterwork by the respective composers, belong to what Howard E. Smither termed the »third oratorio period« (1860-1900). The oratorios entitled Christus by Liszt and by Friedrich Kiel were both completed in 1872, while Anton Rubinstein's »sacred opera« Christus was finished in 1893. Felix Draeseke's Christus-Mysterium was composed between 1895 and 1899. With the exception of Rubinstein's opera, the libretti were all arranged from biblical and other sources by the composers themselves, and thus follow a strongly personal and confessional course. The original model of this oratorical sub-genre is Handel's Messiah, which, precisely because it was not tied to a precise liturgical function, sought to encompass a full picture of its central character. The relatively high number of Christ-oratorios in the 19th century, particularly in Germany (one thinks, in addition to the works already mentioned, also of Felix Mendelssohn and Carl Loewe), must be seen in the context of fundamental theological trends of the time which affected the Protestant world above all, designated »Leben-Jesu-Forschung« - research on the life of Jesus. Through the writings of Friedrich Schleiermacher and the still more unorthodox Ernest Renan and David Friedrich Strauß, the human figure of Jesus became the center of interest. The many highly divergent representations of Jesus we find in the large series of »life of Jesus« novels are only partly due to their having been written by Catholic as well as Protestant authors. The interest in a »biography of Jesus,« as well as the weakening hold of a liturgical calendar on the contemporary religious imagination owing to the progressive secularization of European culture, strongly contributed to the emergence of the Christ-oratorio as a genre.
This paper explores the extent to which the evidence of these secularizing trends in religion and culture is to be found in the music as well as the libretti of these works, and will conclude with a critical consideration of Kistler's dictum, quoted above, that the four sacred works in question should be viewed as arising from the different religious identities of their respective composers.
Marko Deisinger (Wien): Roman oratorios at the Habsburg court in Vienna. On the introduction and establishment of the oratorio at Vienna's imperial court in the second half of the 17th century
Two figures play an especially prominent role in the history of the inception of the oratorio in Vienna: Archduke Leopold Wilhelm and Empress Eleonora II. As an ecclesiastical dignitary, Leopold had close ties to Rome and made every effort to bring reputed musicians and new musical genres from this city to his court. An inventory list compiled in Vienna indicates that his court chapel's repertory included oratorios of Roman origin.
Without a doubt, it was Eleonora II who solidly established oratorios in Vienna. After the Empress founded her own court chapel in 1657, she had oratorios imported from Rome and performed in her chapel. Her kapellmeister, Giuseppe Tricarico, who had already conducted oratorios prior to that, played an important role in this effort.
The imported oratorios include works with librettos by Loreto Vittori, Lelio Orsini, Francesco Buti and Piertro Filippo Bernini, most of which were first printed in Vienna. The music was composed by Marco Marazolli, Carlo Caproli, Giovanni Bicilli and Giovanni Francesco Marcorelli. Giacomo Carissimi was apparently also represented with an oratorio performed during Advent in 1662: A fact as yet unknown among scholars is that an anonymous Viennese libretto Oratorio di Daniele Profeta (I-Bc Lo.6169) preserved as a unicum in Bologna concurs with the text of a composition by Carissimi located in three English archives (GB-Lwa Ms. CG II, Lcm Ms. 108 u. T Ms. 508).
Eleonora regularly had oratorios performed until she died in 1686. Even after her death, the increasing production of Viennese oratorios did not squelch imports from Rome. Leopold I continued to cultivate the oratorio, which had by then also taken hold in his chapel, occasionally going back to Roman works of this genre. In the last quarter of the 17th century, oratorios by renowned composers such as Bernardo Pasquini, Alessandro Melani and Alessandro Scarlatti were performed at the Viennese court.
Eva Verena Schmid (Stuttgart): Schumanns oratorios »Das Paradies und die Peri« and »Der Rose Pilgerfahrt«: situating these works in a socio-historical context
»Das Paradies und die Peri« and »Der Rose Pilgerfahrt«, often condemned by his contemporaries as »secular«, are definitely not works of art which are associated with Schumann, not to mention ones which are performed very often. The Year of Schumann 2010 is at the very least an occasion to deal intensively with these works. First of all, the paper will outline the socio-historical context in which the oratorios were composed, particulary in light of the music festivals, which provide the background against which the works have to be seen. The »D as Paradies und die Peri« exhibit many themes which were ideally suited for music festivals. In »D er Rose Pilgerfahrt« the way in which the choral associations have influenced the work will be outlined.