Baroque Era and the Oratorio:

Baroque Era and the Oratorio: Handel, Haydn and Mendelssohn

The transition from the Renaissance period to what is commonly known as the Baroque period is marked by a retrenchment of values in Europe following a time of great artistic and ideological reformation. For the Catholic Church and for the crowns of such feudal states as England, Italy, France, Germany, Austria and Hungary, the imperative to return the publics to the fold would call for a more culturally intuitive way of engagement. This marks the very self-conscious birth of the Baroque movement, which was a strategic decision on the part of the European academic community to bring about more accessible thematic values in the music produced during the time. As the research conducted hereafter will demonstrate, these values would be largely contained the principles of the Catholic spiritual canon but would give way to a set of compositional, tonal and orchestral innovations in the historical continuum of musical composition. The primary forms of opera and oratorio that would come into existence during this time are indicative of the need to accommodate the emergent intentions of courtly composition. In order to establish a mass appeal that revolved on sacred composition, new tonal and choral arrangements came to the fore and would increasingly be interwoven with more complex instrumentation and more virtuosic organ notation. In the primary examples of Oratorio that will be discussed here throughout and in the more general discussion of Baroque itself, we can see that critically important figures in the Baroque movement such as Georg Friedrich Handel, Franz Joseph Haydn and Felix Mendelssohn would achieve their greatest innovations and spread their greatest influence working through the religious modicum.

The Baroque Period:

In this regard, the period known as the Baroque era would reflect a powerful nexus between the monarchical bearings of Europe, the re-emergent imperialism of the Catholic Church and the emotive flourish of classical composition. The far-reaching influence of composers such as Handel and Haydn would bear a reciprocal relationship with the political and cultural tenor of the period, with their influence helping to bring the sentiment of the public into congruence with the spiritual leanings of the monarchy itself. So denotes Nettl (1946), who reports that one might characterize "Baroque art as the art of the Counter-reformation . . . A kind of missionary tendency aimed at weaning men away from the independent habits of Protestant thought back into the fold of the orthodox Catholic church and the secular powers of the imperial rule." (p. 101)

Nettl goes on to make the case that the opera composed in the prominent settings of the era would be a particular demonstration of this marriage between religiosity and royal authority. Both in the performance venues on which important works were displayed and in the sonic textures themselves, the distinguished compositions of the Baroque movement were reflective of an impassioned interest on the part of the composers themselves to these conjoined interests. Nettl makes the point that Austrian composition demonstrates a clear affinity for the halls of both religious and royal authority. As Nettl claims, "this theory is fully exemplified in the Austrian music of this period. We find that the opera contains elements taken from courtly, municipal and convent life against a background of Venetian folk-lore monody. Immense choirs divided, according to the old Venetian pattern, into two or more parts, luxurious ballets and brilliant orchestras abound. The tinkling lutes, guitars and harpsichords, the creaking Regal, the deep-voiced violas and wind instruments no longer in use today, such as shawms and cornets, produced a partly mystic, partly bombastic effect. The tonal division of parts into wood-winds, brasses, and strings corresponded to the scenic alinements, with the wooded malls and streets extending into infinity and the severally symmetrical rows of palaces and formal gardens." (p. 101)

To Nettl's perspective, this denote a very particular motive on the part of the composer, or at least on the commission to which he was assigned during the period. Nettl argues that the primary intention of Baroque music was to serve as Church music. Further, he proclaims that as such, its design was on converting adherents to the Catholic Church. And as Nettl points out, even in the most practical sense it was appropriate to contextualize the Baroque in a grand and spiritual way that could not be done practically outside of the Church. So was this the case in the scale upon which such composition would typically be executed, with a considerable number of musicians and voices required to carry out the operas of the time and place. Nettl reports that many a mass would be divided into up to six sections, making an example of a mass by Orazio Benevoli from 1628, Nettl indicates that the score for the mass is divided in 53 systems of notation. Outlining the composition for 16 vocal parts, 34 instrumental parts, two organs and a bass part, Benevoli is here said to have created a compositional arrangement that is designed for the cathedral setting both aesthetically and architecturally. (Nettl, p. 101)

The Baroque era would of course not mark the first time that compositional modes were dominated by sacred imperatives. Instead, it would be an important catalyst toward the greater spread of Catholic influence and values in the period before the Enlightenment. From roughly 1600 to 1750, the influence of the Catholic Church could be heard in many of the most cherished compositions used to identify the era. But in tracing the history of this intercession between compositional innovation and Christian values, we can see that the Baroque movement would initiate as a revival of sorts. In this regard, we can draw a clear connection between the oratorios of Handel and others and the work of such long-passed luminaries as Hildegard of Bingen. The twelfth century abbess was of German descent like Handel. Contrary to Handel, Hildegard was a composer second and a figure of the Church first. The remarkably prescient choral arrangements and morality themes in her work would make her a lynch-pin of the Baroque era that would spring forth many centuries hence. So tells King-Lenzmeier (2001), who makes the case that Hildegard's compositions survive with relevance today on the basis of certain universal thematic imperatives. King-Lenzmeier indicates that "although Hildegard lived in a world whose assumptions were radically removed from our own, she speaks to us today through the centuries as an important voice for concersns we share. These include seeing both the particular and the universal in creation, rediscovering the complementarity of gender imagery, and showing that the feminine can be used creatively in relationship to the divine and the human. She is eminently practical, yet passionate in her concern for what her visions tells her is the right course to follow. In short, she appeals to us on a variety of levels." (King-Lenzmeier, p. xi)

This is very much aligned with the intended values of the Baroque movement, suggesting that hers is a shadow that loomed large for composers of the generation many centuries hence. The purposive nature of the Baroque movement suggests an interest in this notion of universality and accessibility with a simultaneous nod to the emotional heft of faith. The pragmatism and the devotion which would be necessary in complement to one another would be recalled during the Baroque movement based on the template of such seminal and canonized figures as Hildegard. Her influence shows the Baroque movement to have initiated in essence as a 'return to roots' movement in composition. Taking a cue from the religious musical figures of those periods which preceded the Renaissance, the composers of the Baroque movement would place the medieval conceits of liturgical poetry and hymnal composition into the assertively mainstream works of its best composers. It also bears noting that the inherency of the relationship between the spiritual and the royal is likewise hinted at in Hildegard's story, revealing that this core intercession of the Baroque movement could also be traced to the years before the Renaissance. King-Lenzmeier points out that Hildegard of Bingen was herself reared to reflect this entwined relationship, indicating that "when pledging their last and possibly tenth child to God, it was of concern to her parents that Hildegard go to a religious setting in which she would associate with persons of similar background and rank, and they looked for a suitable place where their daughter might be placed. Later Hildegard was criticized for taking only those born to noble families into her convent. This was the customary practice at the time, and Hildegard's sense of class and station was part of her identity and stability. To be part of a social order was to be part of a human community as it had been determined by God; there was nothing shameful to the medieval mind about openness regarding class distinctions." (King-Lenzmeier, p. 3)

So would this also be a major marker of the Baroque period, where the authority sought by the monarchies of Europe would be closely reflective of the belief that religion and status were suggestive of one another. For the Baroque movement, the imperative of restoring and solidifying authority was based in the vestment of this to the Church through the Crown. Thus, the perspective of the Baroque movement as serving very particular objectives is captured in the political and cultural forces driving its chief composers. As we move into a discussion on some of these figures, it becomes increasingly apparent that success and notoriety depended largely on courtly patronage and that, consequently, those who achieved the greatest success and notoriety would be the most adept in the innovation of sacred music.

Key Figures in the Development of the Oratorio:

Perhaps none from this time can be said to have been so adept as Handel, who is seen to an extent as the key nexus point between the Renaissance and the Classical period. Living during the Baroque period stretching between these eras, he is often seen as a unifying figure for bridging the values of composers both before and after himself. This was true both chronologically and geographically as the German born and Italian trained composers set his adult life in London. It was here that he became a leading figure of the movement and highly favored both by the Queen and by the prominent social figures of city. Bringing the form of Italian choral arrangement to the theatre in particular, Handel helped to make a new and compelling form of vocal presentation possible to English-speaking audiences. Accordingly, Dent (2007) tells that "Italian singers have always been unrivalled in popular favour, and in Handel's days they were not only something new to England, but were the exponents of a vocal art which admittedly has never been surpassed. The theatre was new and sumptuous; society was wealthy and at the same time exclusive; at the opera the great world met together as in a sort of club. People went to talk and to be seen as well as to see and hear; they do so in opera-houses still. And the Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket possessed the greatest opera-composer living, a greater even than Scarlatti himself." (Dent, p. 34)

Here, the classicist implications of the compositional world are reiterated. But it is also of interest to note that this would mark an interesting convergence of the religious and secular worlds. As noted, much of the Baroque composition of the time was conceived to achieve an aural and physical symbiosis with the performance space of a cathedral. However, were performance was set within the theatrical context, inherently sacred music would be presented to audiences with cultural and social motives for presenting themselves. This is one of the core ironies of the Baroque period, which would occur under the banner of conversion to religious adherence but which would carry many of the same cultural and status-based implications as have secular forms of composition. In many ways, this helps us to understand why Handel would be such an important figure to Classical composers such as Mozart and Beethoven who would emerge to seminal importance after Handel's Baroque movement had eclipsed into irrelevance. This may be suggest that the value in the work of Baroque's greatest composers was in finding ways to innovate with the mode of sacred music and, consequently, producing lasting musical contributions that would far outlast the sociocultural values of the time.

One of the primary reasons that figures such as Handel would enjoy such universal acclaim even while writing within a religious framework would be the emotive and evocative nature of his oratorios. As would be common practice, the oratorio would boast many of the same conventions as the opera in terms of arrangement and aesthetic, but the thematic impetus would often bring to bear the greater spiritual implications at the heart of the Baroque movement. So is this demonstrated by Handel's oratorios, which would generally revolve on biblical narratives and would, accordingly, expand into broad themes on human emotion and divine recognition. This is readily apparent in such early oratorios as Saul, in which the use of a chorus carried pointedly more populist implications. Though presented in the King's Theatre in London, Saul would nonetheless be suggestive of the intention for inclusiveness within the Baroque idiom. On this point, Hicks (2007) remarks that in this particular oratorio, "the chorus, not mere commentators, played a role as the people of Israel, directly affected by the downfall of their king. On this framework Handel created a musical drama of remarkable power, drawing the listener with sympathy into the growing disturbance of Saul's mind while evoking vivid images of such scenes as the victory parade for David and the visit to the Witch. The expression of blended love and loss in the final elegy for Saul and Jonathan is one of the most moving moments in all Handel's output. Saul opened a season of oratorio and ode at the King's on 16 January 1739, concluding on 19 April." (Ch. 9)

The acclaim that Handel would experience during his lifetime may likely be viewed as a product of his patronage in the royal court and the favor which he would curry for his evocative liberties with biblical verse and the relative accessibility which he favored. As the discussion veers into more specific recognition of works such as Messiah, the popular permeation of Handel's compositions is a matter of importance to our discussion. Indeed, with the particular mindset of the Church toward conversion through sacred music, Handel's popularity as a composer would play a role in the cultural and religious mores of the time. Herein, we come to understand the tremendous power that musical composition possessed during the Baroque era. In Handel's stature, it also becomes apparent that the monarchies of Europe were well aware of and in clear advocacy of this power. Hicks notes that even prior to his transition into the oratorio, Handel's works in opera were largely done at the behest of royals. Particularly in London, but also as a figure who moved with fluidity about the European continent, Handel did function as something of a centralizing figure of especially great importance to the court's music appreciators. This is demonstrated by the high honors frequently bestowed upon Handel and, simultaneously, the greater liberties availed him in the pursuit of his craft. So is this noted where Hicks describes Handel's time in the Royal Academy of Music in London, telling that "tn May 1719 the king authorized an annual bounty of £1000 to the Academy and ordered its legal incorporation. On 14 May Handel was commissioned by the Lord Chamberlain to visit the Continent and contract 'with such Singer or Singers & #8230; fit to perform on the English Stage', Senesino being particularly required. Handel seems not to have returned to Italy, however, but instead went to Dresden, probably taking in Dusseldorf and Halle on the way. He was there by July and stayed on until September, when an illustrious opera company (including Senesino and Handel's old colleague Durastanti) was assembled for a lavish production of Lotti's Teofane to celebrate a royal marriage." (Ch. 6)

Handel's life and work was inextricable from the economic fortune of the kings and queens of Europe, and as such, became itself a vestige for the crown's strategic use of the Catholic Church to its own ends. His popularity would become during his later periods of composition, a function of the re-emergence of the Catholic Church. Moreover, his station in London would become something of a trailblazing decision, creating a path for the likes of Haydn and Mendelssohn thereafter to extend their influence into the United Kingdom and, consequently, the English speaking world. To the consequence of extending the power of sacred Catholic music to convert potential adherents, Handel's English oratorios would become a template to those that he influenced. So is this denoted by the Music Academy Online (MAO)(2008), which would report on the anecdote of Haydn's first journey from Vienna to London. Here, it is reported that "the sixty-eight-year-old Haydn, now working in Vienna, was well-known throughout Western Europe. He had had repeated invitations to come to England and compose there, and in 1791 he decided to make the trip. While in London, he composed an opera, symphonies, and at least twenty other pieces. The English audiences adored Haydn and his concerts were wildly successful. Haydn also attended concerts by other composers. A famous anecdote relates that Haydn wept when he heard Handel's Messiah for the first time in 1791, stating that Handel was 'the master of us all.'" (MAO, 1)

So taken was Haydn that he would be inspired to compose the Creation upon his return to Vienna in 1798. Like Handel, Haydn would use the inspiration of biblical parable as the basis for a work of grand operatic purpose. And like Handel, Haydn's cultural fluidity would be a basis for the accessibility and widespread appeal enjoyed by his work. As MAO reports, Haydn's the Creation would be regarded as the first bilingual musical composition of its kind, set as it was for both German and English variations. In a manner not to be lost on this discussion, this seems to reinforce to socio-cultural imperatives underlying the use of the oratorio as a dominant compositional form. In many regards, this form may represent the height of the baroque movement and its primary imperatives even in its waning. Indeed, Haydn is prominent as a crossover figure between the Baroque and Classical periods as denoted by his self-proclaimed reverence for Handel and his personal friendship with Mozart, decidedly a product and provocateur of the latter era. Incidentally, it was also from within this role that he would serve to demonstrate the decided economic value in a proclivity toward the sacred. Perhaps not quite an irony when one considers the direct correlation between the rule of the monarchy and the authority of the Catholic Church, the distinction between figures such as Haydn or Handel and Mozart is less of status than of standing. MAO reports on this contrast, "it is well-known that Franz Joseph Haydn's most famous colleague, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, died in poverty. The exact location of his grave still remains a mystery. Haydn's case is completely different. When the older composer died in 1809, his fame was so great that phrenologists, seeking to discover the secret of Haydn's genius, took the composer's head for study." (p. 1)

Suffice it to say than that it might not be hyperbolic to attribute this enormous level of success and notoriety to certain careerist decisions. Indicative of the patterns that drove the Baroque era, it is true that Haydn would experience an intimate relationship with the monarchies of Europe and a widespread appreciation in the Catholic canon. The Creation would be viewed as his lasting and final statement, if not also his friendship with Mozart and his tutelage of a young Ludwig Van Beethoven. But ultimately, Haydn is shown to be a figure of magnetic importance in the evolution of music, standing on the threshold between the sacred and the secular but owing his tremendous fortune and respect to both. His story is one which demonstrates well the closely interconnected strands of monarchy, compositional fame and religious devotion during the Baroque period. No mere coincidence, Haydn passed away of natural causes while Napoleon's forces invaded Vienna. Here, with the initiation of the Enlightenment and the flourishing of the Classical Era, his legacy as a force of musical continuity had been assured most especially by the power of his spiritual works. In the Creation, his work would be passed around the Catholic world to equal acclaim in all parts. As MAO indicates, "it became Haydn's crowning glory, and he composed the Seasons to fulfill demand for a second oratorio; this work was completed in 1801." (p. 1)

It is this type of tributary reverence from the great composers who succeeded him that would help to keep Handel's influence and approach always current. Even a century after his passing, his work was alive and well through the admiration of newly prominent composers like Felix Mendelssohn. The German composer would rise to fame during the Romantic Classical era and would use this fame to reignite an interest in the works of Handel. He raised the Handel oratorio Israel in Egypt for German audiences after locating the original score in London. This would help to spark a resurgence of appreciation for the slightly shadowed Handel, which Mendelssohn would exploit to yet greater opportunity. So denotes Juliano (2009), who indicates that Mendelssohn was already regarded as a young prodigy not unlike Mozart when he revisited the Viennese composer's treatment of Handel in 1828. Here, Juliano tells that "Felix Mendelssohn was only 19 years old when he revised Mozart's arrangement of a greatly undervalued early masterwork by Georg Friedrich Handel, titled Acis und Galatea, which predated by a number of years his landmark revival of Bach's St. Matthew's Passion, considered by many to be the greatest composition in the history of Western music. Acis was actually the only Handel opera to enjoy popularity at the time of his death, and modern musicologists can rightly point to its felicity of melody and a plethora of electrifying arias and choral pieces that make it at least the equal of Israel in Egypt, with which it shares some stylistic similarities and length." (p. 1)

Indeed, his education in the works of Handel

would be a precursor to Mendelssohn's own critically important oratorio. His Elijah would stand nearly shoulder to shoulder with Messiah and the Creation as towers of the genre. And its selection of the scriptures as the thematic basis for the work would place it directly in line to assume Handel and Haydn's respective legacies in sacred operatic composition. Mendelssohn's Elijah would, like its predecessors, proceed from the use of scriptural texts and would moreover carry explicit overtones endorsing the wholesale adoption of the scriptures as passed down from God through the prophets. Accordingly, "Elijah by Mendelssohn is a dramatic story of the prophet Elijah as he summons the people to righteousness, performs miracles, and struggles against idol-worshipping. He confronts the wicked queen Jezebel. It ends as Elijah rises to heaven in a fiery chariot." (Asiado, p. 1)

The emphasis on the divine and the popular acceptance of faith-based doctrines suggests an interest not just in entertaining the audience, and probably not as much in moralizing the audience, but most essentially in indoctrinating the audience. The messages that are largely strung through the oratorios we consider here tend to suggest the core value of compelling faith, observance and humble prostration. As the discussion here hints, this points as much to a faith, observance and prostration to the monarchy as to the almighty. Within the context of such composition is held the presumption that these forces are inextricably linked.

Handel's Messiah:

With Messiah, Handel launched the oratorio to the forefront of the field of compositional expression. This was perceived as an instantaneously successful and a lastingly defining work of the genre, achieving a majestic choral effect without sacrificing anything for the devotional nature of the material. The Messiah is exemplary of its genre for a number of qualities in terms of both arrangement and thematic impulse. The former of these is captured in the tailoring done to accommodate the religious and courtly imperatives of the work. In particular, Handel's work is a demonstration of the tactics which were used to bring vocal and lyrical conceits to the forefront. A primary feature of the Baroque movement, this method would also bring an altogether new texture and power to the opera. As Hicks indicates, "with choruses added to the operatic forms of recitative and aria, all the vocal forms in which he excelled were brought together, and concertos and other orchestral music could also be included, either in the course of a work or in intervals. There was the added practical advantage that performances were under his sole control, free from the complications and expenses involved with stage presentation." (Ch. 10)

Handel's unparalleled influence in his time would allow him the freedom to engage the evolving form with an experimental license and financial backing not afforded others of his time. It is thus that he was able to essentially set a mold for the Oratorio through Messiah that joined opera and chorus in an emotive and bold manner. This would become a mold from which would be cast much sacred music and hymnal worship immediately thereafter. So too would it bring the Baroque forms of mass and fugue to greater public attention. For Handel and his libretto, the thematic provocation of using scriptural text seemed to fulfill well the notion that music could indeed be used to instigate conversion. Messiah carries this very intention to its literal end, as a description of the Dublic performances from 1741 demonstrate, Here, Hicks describes its initiation offering as a 'public rehearsal' done for charity and indicates its risque employment of scriptural text to much positive reception. Here, Hicks tells of Handel's libretto for the piece that "Jennens's highly original conception has a didactic purpose, namely to justify the doctrine that Jesus Christ was truly the Messiah promised by the Hebrew prophets, but the message is conveyed subtly by telling the story of Jesus's mission through the Old Testament texts that were held to predict it; the story itself is therefore the foreground, yet is neither directly narrated (except in the description of the Nativity) nor dramatized. In the final part, the promise of redemption obtained through Christ is contemplated and celebrated." (Hicks, Chapter 1)

The oratorio would broadcast a clear and explicit statement to the end of promoting this goal of conversion to Catholic adherence with both impassioned revelry and brooding intensity. And in line with its importance as a template-setter for the oratorio form, its choral innovations would conjure the greatest appreciation, owing in no small part to the emphatic, undeniable and positively anthemic nature of certain sections. Among them, view pieces of music have achieved quite so familiar and thorough a penetration as the "Hallelujah" chorus of Part II of Messiah. This is a demonstration of why Handel would be recognized to have moved so deeply so many. Were the purpose of Baroque music strictly to move audience members to conversion, it can be suggested that such moments as "Hallelujah" are a remarkable success. The high-reaching crescendo of the chorus has a decidedly revelatory feeling and its bright, ecstatic tone carries all the markings of a messianic work of great emotional weight. It is thus that this remains well-known today and it considered a centerpiece of the Christmas cantata. Here, we come to understand that the lasting importance of this piece is both a matter of its broad musical appeal and the success with which it conveys the spiritual imperatives that were of such political and cultural importance to Handel's patrons. In the middle 1740s, Handel would turn his attention almost entirely to the mode of the oratorio and to great success. However, few works thereafter within the genre or even by Handel himself would touch the heights of inspiration achieved with Messiah. As Burrows (1991) tells, Handel had been in a state of constant evolution that helped to produce the oratorio as a valid form and to further establish it with artistic credibility. Here, "Handel's musical strengths came together into a form of oratorio that suited his time and place. If the new form was unsatisfactory because it inflated the original short work rather more than it could bear, the compensation was that the musical attractions of the operatic style -- expert singers and good characterization -- were mixed with those of Handel's grand 'anthem' style and the whole was in English." (Burrows, p. 5)