Chronological list of oratorios from the 16th century to the present
First page of the first part of Bach's Christmas Oratorio (1734)
This is a chronological list of oratorios from the 16th century to the present. Unless otherwise indicated, all dates are those when the work was first performed. In some cases only the date of composition is known. In others, the oratorio has only been heard on a recording.
There is considerable overlap between the oratorio and the cantata, especially during the 19th century. The works listed below are those that have most often been referred to as oratorios.[1]
16th century
[edit]
Emilio de' Cavalieri – Rappresentatione di Anima, et di Corpo (1600)
17th century
[edit]
A recently discovered portrait, inscribed by the artist as representing Charpentier, but dating circa 1750,[2] about 40 years after his death.
Pietro della Valle – Oratorio della Purificatione (1640, the earliest documented use of the word "oratorio" to describe a musical composition)[3]
Cornelis Thymenszoon Padbrué – De tranen Petri ende Pauli (published 1647, only partial score survives)[4]
In honorem Caecilliae, Valeriani et Tiburij canticum H.394 (mid 1670s)
Pour la fête de l'Epiphanie H.395 (mid 1670s)
Historia Esther H.396 (mid 1670s)
Cacillia virgo et martyr Octobre vocibus H.397 (mid 1670s)
Pestis Mediolanensis H.398 (mid 1670s)
Prélude pour Horrenda pastis H.398 a (1679)
Filius prodigus H.399 (1680)
Prélude pour l'enfant prodigue H.399 a (1681–82)
L'enfant prodigue H/399 b (date unknown)
L'enfant prodigue H.399 c (date unknown)
Canticum in honorem Beatae Virginis Mariae... H.400 (1680)
Extremum Dei judicium H.401 (early 1680s)
Sacrificium Abrahae H.402
Symphonies ajustées au sacrifice d'Abraham H.402 a (date unknown)
Le sacrifice d'Abraham H.402 b (date unknown)
Mors Saülis et Jonathae H.403 (early 1680s)
Josue prélude H.404 a (1679)
Josue H.404 (early 1680s)
In resurrectione Domini Nostri Jesu Christi H.405 (1681–82)
In circumcisione Domini / Dialogus inter angelum et pastores H.406 (1682–83)
Dialogus inter esurientem, sitientem et Christum H.407 (1682–83)
Elévation H.408 (1683)
In obitum augustissimae nec non piissime Gallorum regina lamentum H.409 (1683)
Praelium Michaelis Archangeli factum in cocho cum dracone H.410 (1683)
Caedes sanctorum innocentium H.411 (1683–85)
Nuptiae sacrae H.412 (1683–85)
Caecilia virgo et martyr H.413 (1683–85)
In nativitatem Domini Nostri Jesu Christi canticum H.414 (1683–85)
Caecilia virgo et martyr H.415 (1686)
Prologue de la Ste Cécile après l'ouverture : Harmonia coelistis H.415 a (1686–87)
In nativitatem Domini canticum H.416 (late 1680s)
Dialogus inter Christum et homines H.417 (early 1690s)
In honorem Sancti Ludovici regis Galliae H.418 (early 1690s)
Pour Saint Augustin mourant H.419 (late 1690s)
Dialogus inter angelos et pastores Judae in nativitatem Domini H.420 (late 1690s)
In nativitatem Domini Nostri Jesu Christi canticum H.421 (1698–99)
Judicium Salomonis H.422 & H.422 a (1702)
Dialogus inter Magdalena et Jesu 2 vocibus Canto e Alto cum organo H.423 (date unknown)
Le reniement de St Pierre H.424 (date unknown)
Dialogus inter Christum et peccatores H.425 & H.425 a date unknown)
Louis-Nicolas Clérambault – L'histoire de la femme adultère ( 1699 ?) C.191
Sébastien de Brossard – Dialogus poenitentis animae cum Deo (1699 ?) SdB.55
18th century
[edit]
First edition of Vivaldi's Juditha triumphans, the only one of his four oratorios to have survivedThe final bars of the "Hallelujah" chorus, from Handel's Messiah, original manuscript
Sébastien de Brossard – Oratorio sopra l'immaculata conceptione della B Virgine (1702–1713) SdB.56
George Frideric Handel – Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (1707)
George Frideric Handel – La resurrezione (1708)
Francesco Maria Veracini – Il trionfo della innocenza da S Niccolò (?1712)
George Frideric Handel – Brockes Passion (1715)
Francesco Maria Veracini – Mosè al mar rosso, ovvero Il naufragio di Faraone (?1715; revised as La liberazione del popolo ebreo nel naufragio di Faraone, 1723)
Antonio Vivaldi – Juditha triumphans (1716)
Francesco Maria Veracini – L'incoronazione di Davidde (1717)
Francesco Maria Veracini – La caduta del savio nell'idoltria di Salomone (1720)
Jan Dismas Zelenka – Sub olea pacis et palma virtutis (1723)
Johann Sebastian Bach – St John Passion (1724)
Johann David Heinichen – L'aride tempie ignude, passion oratorio (1724?)
Francesco Maria Veracini – L'empietà distrutta nella caduta di Gerico (1724)
Johann Sebastian Bach – Easter Oratorio (1725)
Johann Sebastian Bach – St Matthew Passion (1727)
Johann David Heinichen – Come? S'imbruna il cieli Occhi piangete (1728), passion oratorio (1724?)
Jan Dismas Zelenka – Il Serpente di Bronzo (1730)
Willem de Fesch – Judith (1732)
Maurice Greene – The Song of Deborah and Barak (1732)[8]
George Frideric Handel – Esther (1732)
George Frideric Handel – Athalia (1733)
George Frideric Handel – Deborah (1733)
Johann Adolph Hasse – Il cantico de' tre fanciulli (1734)
Johann Sebastian Bach – Christmas Oratorio (1734)
Johann Sebastian Bach – Ascension Oratorio (1735)
Johann Georg Reutter – Gioas re di Giuda (1735)
William Boyce – David's Lamentation over Saul and Jonathan (1736)[9]
George Frideric Handel – Alexander's Feast (1736)
Jan Dismas Zelenka – I penitenti al sepolcro del redentore (1736)
Maurice Greene – Jephtha (1737)
George Frideric Handel – Il trionfo del Tempo e della Verità (1737)
Johann Adolph Hasse – Le virtù appiè della croce (1737)
George Frideric Handel – Israel in Egypt (1738)
George Frideric Handel – Saul (1739)
Giuseppe Bonno – Eleazaro (1739)
Giuseppe Bonno – San Paolo in Athene (1740)
George Frideric Handel – L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato (1740)
Johann Adolph Hasse – Serpentes ignei in deserto (1740)
John Christopher Smith – David's Lamentation over Saul and Jonathan (Hickman's Rooms, 1740)
George Frideric Handel – Messiah (1741)
George Frideric Handel – Samson (1741)
Johann Adolph Hasse – Giuseppe riconosciuto (1741)
Johann Adolph Hasse – I pellegrini al sepolcro di Nostro Signore (1742)
George Frideric Handel – Joseph and his Brethren (1743)
George Frideric Handel – Semele (1743)
Thomas Arne – The Death of Abel (1744, lost except for 'Hymn of Eve')
Thomas Arne – Judith (1744)
Maurice Greene – The Force of Truth (1744)
George Frideric Handel – Hercules (1744)
Johann Adolph Hasse – Ci'l un parantê und parsol scelopgrini (1744)
Francesco Maria Veracini – L'errore di Salomone (1744)
Thomas Arne – Alfred (1745, oratorio version, later an opera)
George Frideric Handel – Belshazzar (1745)
Johann Adolph Hasse – La Caduta di Gerico (1745)
Willem de Fesch – Joseph (1746)
George Frideric Handel – Judas Maccabaeus (1746)
George Frideric Handel – Occasional Oratorio (1746)
George Frideric Handel – Joshua (1747)
Johann Adolph Hasse – Santa Elena al Calvario (1747)
Franz Xaver Richter – La Deposizione della Croce (1748)
George Frideric Handel – Alexander Balus (1748)
George Frideric Handel – Solomon (1748)
George Frideric Handel – Susanna (1748)
George Frideric Handel – Theodora (1749)
George Frideric Handel – The Choice of Hercules (1750)
William Hayes – The Fall of Jericho (c. 1740–50)
William Hayes – The Passions. An Ode for Music ('dramatic oratorio', 1750)
Jean-Joseph de Mondonville – Coeli enarrant gloria (1750)
Johann Adolph Hasse – La conversione di Sant' Agostino (1750)
James Hook – The Ascension, (Covent Garden, 20 March 1776)
Antonio Salieri – La passione di Gesù Cristo (1776)
Joseph Martin Kraus – Der Tod Jesu (1776)
John Abraham Fisher – Providence (Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, 2 July 1777)[13]
William Hayes – David (first two acts completed, the rest finished by his son Philip (1777)
Thomas Linley the younger – The Song of Moses (1777)
Robert Wainwright – The Fall of Egypt (1780, Liverpool)
Marianna Martines – Sant'Elena al Calvario (1781)
Marianna Martines – Isacco figura del redentore (1782)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Davide penitente (1785)
Antonio Rosetti – Der sterbende Jesu (1785)
Anton Teyber – Gioas re di Giuda (1786)
Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf – Giobbe (1786)
Antonio Rosetti – Jesus in Gethsemane (1790)
Joseph Eybler – Die Hirten bei der krippe zu Bethlehem (1794)
Antonio Casimir Cartellieri – Gioas re di Giuda (1795)
Joseph Haydn – The Seven Last Words of Christ (1796)
Joseph Haydn – The Creation (1798)
19th century
[edit]
Worcester Cathedral, where Sullivan's The Prodigal Son premiered in 1869Manuscript score of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius, signed by Elgar and the performers of the premiere in 1900
Joseph Haydn – The Seasons (1801)
Christian Ernst Graf – Der Tod Jesu (1802)
Friedrich Witt – Der leidende Heiland (1802)
Ludwig van Beethoven – Christ on the Mount of Olives (1803)
Ferdinando Paer – Il Santo Sepolcro (1803)
Antonio Casimir Cartellieri – La celebre Nativita del Redentore (1806)
Antonio Casimir Cartellieri – La purificatione di Maria Virgine (1807)
Ferdinando Paer – La Passione di Gesu Cristo (1810)
Joseph Eybler – Die vier letzten Dinge (1810)
Giacomo Meyerbeer – Gott und die Natur (1811, Berlin)
^Oxford English Dictionary: "A large-scale, usually narrative musical work for orchestra and voices, typically on a sacred theme and performed with little or no costume, scenery, or action."
^Howard E. Smither, "Oratorio", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001).
^Grijp, Louis and Jan Bloemendal, Jan (2011). "Vondel's Theatre and Music"Archived 30 October 2023 at the Wayback Machine, Joost Van Den Vondel (1587–1679): Dutch Playwright in the Golden Age, pp. 150–151. Brill
^Howard E. Smither. A History of the Oratorio, Vol. 1 (1977)
^Andrew V. Jones, "Carissimi, Giacomo [Jacomo]", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001).
^Randel, Don M. (1996). "Carissimi, Giacomo", The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music, p. 136. Harvard University Press
^Zöllner, Eva. 'Handel and English oratorioArchived 28 October 2021 at the Wayback Machine' in The Cambridge History of Eighteenth Century Music (2011)
^Maggie Humphreys, Robert C. Evans (1997). "Carter, William (1838 – ?)". Dictionary of composers for the Church in Great Britain and Ireland. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 59. ISBN 9780720123302.