Unger M.P. Historical Dictionary of Choral Music

Подождите немного. Документ загружается.

composers in other centers (in addition to some of those already

mentioned) included Giovanni Legrenzi, Francesco Gasparini,

Antonio Lotti, and Antonio Vivaldi.

In central Europe (especially in Vienna), Italian oratorios were

performed in Roman Catholic courts, particularly during Lent. In

Vienna during the later 1600s, the popularity of the sepolcro (a

dramatic reenactment of the Passion account, often with colorful

orchestration) encouraged the composition of oratorios, whose chief

composers were Johann Fux and Antonio Caldara.

In Protestant Germany, elements of the Italian oratorio were inte-

grated into the Lutheran historia, a musical setting of a Bible story

(most typically, the Passion account)—the most famous examples be-

ing those by Heinrich Schütz. The chief center for the cultivation of

oratorio in Germany during the early 1700s was Hamburg, which (not

surprisingly) was also famous for its opera productions. Soon orato-

rios became popular in other German cities as well. Important com-

posers included Reinhard Keiser, Johann Mattheson, and Georg

Philipp Telemann. Passion settings of the time were also often cast

in oratorio form (even if not bearing the designation); Johann Sebas-

tian Bach’s two extant Passions are among their number. In Berlin,

Carl Heinrich Graun’s Passion oratorio Der Tod Jesu (1755) was

performed almost every year until the late 1800s. Bach designated

only three of his extant works as oratorios: Oster-Oratorium [Easter

Oratorio], BWV 249 (1725); Weihnachts-Oratorium [Christmas Ora-

torio], BWV 248 (1734–35); and Oratorium auf Himmelfahrt [Ascen-

sion Oratorio], BWV 11 (1735). The Christmas Oratorio consists es-

sentially of six separate cantatas to be spread out over the days from

Christmas to New Years Day.

In France, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, who had studied with

Carissimi in Rome, wrote some 34 Latin oratorios, though they are

called by other names. Significant in his works is the greatly ex-

panded role of the chorus (often a double chorus), which functions as

narrator, crowd, or commentator standing apart from the action.

In England, George Frideric Handel joined elements of the

English choral tradition (in particular, the English anthem and cer-

emonial ode) and the German Protestant Passion (which involved the

chorus in the dramatic action) with Italian operatic style to produce

a string of successful oratorios after the demand for Italian operas

had declined. Intended for public performance, his works make ex-

332 • ORATORIO

tensive use of the chorus. They are usually constructed in three acts,

and begin with an overture in the French style. During Handel’s day,

instrumental pieces (e.g., organ concertos) were often performed

between the acts.

The influence of Handel’s oratorios continued after his death. They

were performed at choral festivals on an increasingly large scale, en-

couraging a view of them as essentially choral works. While compos-

ers of succeeding generations were almost invariably influenced by

the Handelian model (especially by its emphasis on the chorus), they

also allowed the style and substance of their works to be shaped by

prevailing musical trends in their individual countries.

Despite a declining interest in sacred music during the 19th

century, composers continued to write oratorios, though in smaller

numbers and often with retrospective elements. Oft-cited works

include Joseph Haydn’s Die Schöpfung [Creation] (1798) and Die

Jahreszeiten [The Seasons] (1801); Franz Schubert’s Lazarus

(1820, incomplete); Felix Mendelssohn’s Paulus [St. Paul] (1836)

and Elias [Elijah] (1846); Hector Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ

(1854); Camille Saint-Saëns’s Oratorio de Noël (1858); Franz

Liszt’s Die Legende von der heiligen Elisabeth (1862) and Christus

(1867); Théodore Dubois’s Les sept paroles du Christ (1867); An-

tonín Dvorˇák’s St. Ludmilla (1886); and Horatio Parker’s Hora

novissima (1892).

In the 20th century many significant oratorios came from England.

Among their number are Edward Elgar’s The Dream of Geron-

tius (1900), The Apostles (1903) and The Kingdom (1906); Ralph

Vaughan Williams’s Sancta Civitas [The Holy City] (1925); Wil-

liam Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast (1931); and Michael Tippett’s A

Child of Our Time (1941).

Other important oratorios of the modern era include Claude

Debussy’s Le Martyre de St. Sébastien (1911); Arthur Honegger’s

Le Roi David (1921); Arnold Schoenberg’s Die Jakobsleiter

(1922);

Igor Stravinsky’s Oedipus rex (an “opera-oratorio,” 1927);

Paul Hindemith’s Das Unaufhörliche (1931); Franz Schmidt’s

Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln (1937); Frank Martin’s Le vin herbé

(1941), In terra pax (1944), Golgotha (1948), and Le mystère de la

nativité (1959); Olivier Messiaen’s La Transfiguration de Notre

Seigneur Jésus-Christ (1969); Krzysztof Penderecki’s Paradise

Lost (an “opera-oratorio,” 1978), the Polish Requiem (1984, rev.

ORATORIO • 333

1993), Seven Gates of Jerusalem (1996), and Credo (1998); and

John Tavener’s Lamentations and Praises (2001).

ORBÁN, GYÖRGY (12 JULY 1947– ). Hungarian composer of Ro-

manian birth. His music, which has been described as neo-Romantic,

combines various styles in an emotionally charged manner. Choral

works include nine masses (one unaccompanied, the others with vari-

ous instrumental forces); the oratorios Regina Martyrum (1993), Ror-

ate Coeli (1993), and Christmas Oratorio (1998); a Passion (1998);

Stabat mater settings (1987, 1995); and other motets. A popular piece

among amateur choirs is the motet “Daemon irrepti callidus” which

employs frenetic vocal ostinatos, contrasting lyric themes, chromatic

writing, and extremes in articulation and dynamics to portray the devil-

ish conflict portrayed in the text.

ORDINARY OF THE MASS. The specified texts of the Roman

Catholic Mass liturgy that remain the same throughout the liturgical

year, in contrast to those comprising the Proper of the Mass.

ORFF, CARL (10 JULY 1895–29 MARCH 1982). German composer

and music educator. He is best remembered for his developmental

approach to music education, which involves group singing and spon-

taneous improvisation with simple percussion instruments and record-

ers. Supported by publications called Orff-Schulwerk (which provide

cues for improvisation rather than a specific method), his principles

and techniques became internationally popular after World War II.

As a composer, Orff wrote primarily for the stage. His most fa-

mous work is the scenic cantata Carmina burana (1936), a primitiv-

istic setting of bawdy medieval poetry. Originally intended as a ballet

with chorus, it is now most often performed in a concert setting. The

composer eventually grouped it with two additional works, Catulli

carmina (1943) and Trionfo di Afrodite (1953), to form the erotically

themed trilogy, Trionfi. Other choral works include the cantata Des

Turmes Auferstehung, for 2 Bar., orch., and org. (1920, rev. male vv.,

orch., and org., 1921); 2 cycles for chorus, pf., and perc.: Cantata

(Werkbuch I) (1932, rev. 1968) and Cantata (Werkbuch II) (1931,

rev. 1968–73); and 2 unaccompanied cycles (which demonstrate his

then recently awakened interest in classical antiquity): Catulli Car-

mina I and II (1930 and 1931). His interest in early music is evident

in Rota (after the medieval round “Sumer is icumen in”), for chorus

and insts. (1972).

334 • ORBÁN, GYÖRGY

ORGAN MASS. A collection of organ versets that replace parts of the

Ordinary and Proper of the Mass, performed in alternation with

the remaining chorally rendered (usually chanted) portions. See also

ALTERNATIM.

ORGANUM. A term used from the 9th century to about 1200 for the

earliest known type of Western polyphony. It was constructed by

adding a second melody (vox organalis) to an existing chant melody

(vox principalis). Early organum featured two parallel voices (often

separated by the interval of a fourth or a fifth) moving in note-against-

note rhythm. Later examples achieved greater independence between

lines by having them move in contrary motion. In the 12th century,

composers began drawing out the chant in long notes beneath a florid

countermelody—a style that was then differentiated from discant,

in which the parts proceeded in a more or less note-against-note

manner. The former style (sometimes referred to as “melismatic or-

ganum”) was a precursor of cantus firmus technique. The last great

body of organum was compiled during the late 12th and early 13th

centuries at Notre Dame (Paris) in a collection credited to Leoninus

and Perotinus. While most of the pieces are for two voices, some are

for three or even four voices. Attempts to modernize the collection

involved replacing certain melismatic passages with clausulae—sec-

tions in discant style employing the standardized rhythmic modes.

When these were performed independently and words were added to

the upper line(s), the motet was born.

ORPHEI DRÄNGAR. Swedish male chorus, based in the Swedish

University City of Uppsala. Originating in 1853, the chorus was led

during the 20th century by Hugo Alfvén (1910–47), Eric Ericson

(1951–91), and Robert Sund (appointed 1991). Known for its fine

intonation, phrasing, and blend, the choir has played an important

role in setting new standards of artistry for modern male choruses in

Sweden and abroad.

ORPHÉON. See SINGING SOCIETIES.

OSPEDALE (OF VENICE). Four charitable institutions, instituted

in the later Middle Ages by mendicant orders and taken over by the

state in the 15th century: the Incurabili, Mendicanti, and Derelitti (or

Ospedaletto), and Pietà. They emphasized the musical training of

orphaned or abandoned young girls. All maintained chapels during

OSPEDALE • 335

the 1600s; in the following century they became famous throughout

Europe for the quality of their music, which included singing, organ

playing, and string playing. Instruction was directed by male music

masters, who also provided new works. Compositions survive pri-

marily from the Pietà, in particular, works by Francesco Gasparini

and Antonio Vivaldi.

OSTINATO. A melodic and/or rhythmic figure that is continuously

repeated throughout a piece. A thematic bass figure that is repeated

in this way is called a ground bass.

OUSELEY, [SIR] FREDERICK ARTHUR GORE (12 AUGUST

1825–6 APRIL 1889). English church musician, scholar, and com-

poser. He dedicated his life to the revival of Anglican church music,

using his personal funds to establish the College of St. Michael and

All Angels, Tenbury Wells, with the goal of providing a model of the

English choral service. As a professor of music at Oxford University,

he modernized its music degrees, edited works from earlier centuries,

and published scholarly treatises. His own choral works include some

13 services; 75 anthems; 2 oratorios, more than 42 hymn tunes, and

some secular works, among which are glees and partsongs.

– P –

PACHELBEL, JOHANN (BAPTIZED 1 SEPTEMBER 1653;

BURIED 9 MARCH 1706). German organist and composer. He

served as deputy organist at St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna (1674),

court organist in Eisenach, where he became a friend of the Bach

family (1677), church organist in Erfurt (1678), court organist in

Stuttgart (1690), town organist in Gotha (1692), and organist at St.

Sebaldus’s Church in Nuremberg (1695). He wrote in a southern lyri-

cal style, light, and florid. Surviving choral works include 11 motets

(9 German, 2 Latin; 10 are for two equal choirs); 11 German church

cantatas (in the sacred concerto mold), 13 variegated Magnificats

(11 in the concerto style, two in the motet style), other Vespers mu-

sic, and 2 masses.

PAGE, ROBERT (27 APRIL 1927– ). American conductor. Special-

izing in large-scale choral works, he has served as conductor of the

Philadelphia Mendelssohn Club (affiliated with the Philadelphia

336 • OSTINATO

Orchestra, 1964–78), assistant conductor and director of choruses

for the Cleveland Orchestra (1971–89), and music director of The

Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh (1979–2005). In 1999 he founded

the Robert Page Festival Singers. He has held teaching appointments

at Temple University (Philadelphia) and Carnegie Mellon University

(Pittsburgh).

PAINE, JOHN KNOWLES (9 JANUARY 1839–25 APRIL 1906).

American composer and educator. After studying for several years

in Germany, he settled in Boston, where he presented organ concerts

and public lectures, leading to an appointment at Harvard University.

He was the first American-born composer to be recognized for large-

scale concert works. Among his extant choral compositions are Mass

[in D], for S, A, T, B, chorus, org., and orch. (1865); the oratorio St.

Peter, for S, A, T, B, chorus, org., and orch. (1872); and numerous

works for male chorus.

PAISIELLO, GIOVANNI (9 MAY 1740–5 JUNE 1816). Italian

composer, active mainly in Naples. From 1776 until 1784 he worked

as maestro di cappella at the court of Catherine the Great in St.

Petersburg, after which he returned to Naples to serve Ferdinand

IV. During the turmoil of the Napoleonic invasions, he sided with

the French, and his fortunes rose and fell accordingly. In 1802 he

accepted Napoleon’s invitation to come to Paris, where he served

as Napoleon’s private maître de chapelle. Though he was back in

Naples again two years later, he maintained his relationship with

Napoleon, sending him one or more sacred works each year. After

the French took Naples a second time, he served the new regime until

the fall of the Bonapartes in 1815.

Best remembered for his many operas, Paisiello wrote a significant

amount of sacred choral music after his departure from Russia. Se-

curely attributed extant works include more than two dozen masses,

a Requiem, about 30 other liturgical pieces (including Magnificat

and Te Deum settings), more than 30 motets, and a handful each of

cantatas and oratorios (counting Passion settings).

PALESTRINA, GIOVANNI PIERLUIGI DA (1525/26–2 FEBRU-

ARY 1594). Italian composer, active in Rome and best remembered

for his church music. After his death he was romanticized as the

quintessential Catholic church composer, giving rise to the Cecilian

movement.

PALESTRINA, GIOVANNI PIERLUIGI DA • 337

He trained at Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, after which he began

a career as a cathedral organist in Palestrina, his presumed birthplace.

When the Bishop of Palestrina, Cardinal Giovanni Maria del Monte,

was elected Pope Julius III in 1551, Palestrina became director of the

Cappella Giulia, the choir at St. Peter’s Basilica. He published his

first book of masses in 1554, dedicating it to Pope Julius. In 1555

the pope ordered his admittance to the Sistine Chapel, despite his

married status and over the objections of its members. When Pope

Julius died that same year, Palestrina’s appointment was tolerated

by his successor, Marcellus II. Unfortunately, Marcellus died after

three short weeks, and his successor, Pope Paul IV, enforced the

rules regarding celibacy, expelling Palestrina and two other singers in

September of that year. The following month he became maestro di

cappella at San Giovanni in Laterano (Basilica of St. John Lateran), a

position he held until 1560, when he left abruptly, apparently because

of insufficient funding for the musicians.

In 1561 Palestrina moved to Santa Maria Maggiore, and in 1566

he accepted a position at the newly established Seminario Romano.

During this time he also worked for Cardinal Ippolito II d’Este at his

country estate at Tivoli, near Rome (July to September 1564, August

1567 to March 1571). His growing reputation during this time was

enhanced by numerous publications: a second book of masses (which

included the famous Missa Papae Marcelli) appeared in 1567, a third

volume in 1570, a book of motets for four voices in 1563, and one

for five voices in 1569.

In 1571 he again became the director of the Cappella Giulia, a po-

sition he retained until his death. Tragedy struck in the 1570s, when

plague carried away two of his three sons, and again in 1580, when

his wife died. After briefly considering the priesthood, he remarried

in 1581 to a fur merchant’s widow—a union that provided financial

security. From then until his death some 13 years later, he published

many volumes of compositions. Nevertheless, many of his works

remained unpublished, among them, more than half of his masses.

Palestrina’s output was prodigious. In addition to providing music

to the various churches that he served officially, he wrote music for

other institutions, chief among them, Rome’s religious confraterni-

ties. Extant, securely attributed works include 104 masses (almost all

for four to six voices), more than 300 motets (most of them for four

or five voices, some for six or eight voices), 68 offertories (all for

338 • PALESTRINA, GIOVANNI PIERLUIGI DA

five voices, and judged by some to surpass the motets in refinement

and inventiveness), more than 70 hymns (almost all for four or five

voices), 35 Magnificat settings (mainly organized in four sets of

eight, one set for each canticle tone—most of them for four voices,

and all but one designed for alternatim performance in that only odd

or even verses are included), some 11 litanies (7 of which are for

eight voices), and several sets of Lamentations. He also wrote some

140 madrigals (counting the madrigali spirituali).

His music was influenced by the spirit of the Counter-Reforma-

tion, which saw music as a potential ally in its goal of instilling

religious devotion among the faithful; more specifically, it was

influenced by the 1563 guidelines of the Council of Trent, which

stipulated that church music should avoid “seductive and impure”

elements and that its texts be intelligible. In 1577 Pope Gregory

XIII engaged him and Annibale Zoilo to revise the chants of the

Roman Gradual and Antiphoner. Although the completion of the

project was ultimately left to others, Palestrina’s involvement in

the project demonstrates his close identification with currents of

religious reform centered in Rome.

While Palestrina cultivated every type of mass (paraphrase,

tenor, freely composed, canonic, and parody), he obviously pre-

ferred the last of these, since more than half of his extant masses fall

into that category. Most of his masses are pervasively contrapuntal;

nevertheless, examples in homophonic style (Missa Papae Marcelli,

Missa brevis of 1570) or polychoral texture (four masses for eight

voices) may be found.

Indeed, despite Palestrina’s posthumous reputation as a composer

of classically restrained polyphony, the reality is that he composed

in a wide variety of styles. For example, more than 70 of his extant

pieces employ the polychoral style, yet he is often overlooked in dis-

cussions of that style. His motets and especially his secular madrigals

often employ variegated, text-expressive writing. Especially note-

worthy among the motets are the 29 five-voice settings on texts from

the Song of Songs (1584), where the strong images of the poetry are

treated to expressive word-painting. Nevertheless, the stereotypical

view of Palestrina’s music as demure, perfectly balanced polyphony

in a harmonically saturated texture, imbued with the spirit and me-

lodic style of chant—while too narrow to be accurate—is not entirely

off the mark.

PALESTRINA, GIOVANNI PIERLUIGI DA • 339

Unlike other composers of the time, Palestrina remained famous

after his death, becoming the idealized representative of “pure”

church music, especially after operatic elements began to infiltrate

sacred music. The legend that, with his text-sensitive Missa Papae

Marcelli, he had narrowly averted a ban on polyphony by delegates

to the Council of Trent (a story spread as early as 1607 by Agos-

tino Agazzari, and picked up by many later writers) contributed to

this view, as did the fact that his diatonic counterpoint became the

primary pedagogical model for learning classical counterpoint dur-

ing succeeding generations (codified in Johann Fux’s Gradus ad

Parnassum [1725], the most influential textbook on counterpoint in

the 18th and 19th centuries). While subsequent assessments of his

music have modified this view—demonstrating that there is no single

“Palestrina style”—they have in no way diminished the high regard

accorded his vast oeuvre by performers and scholars alike.

PARAPHRASE MASS. See MASS.

PARKER, ALICE (16 DECEMBER 1925– ). American choral ar-

ranger, composer, conductor, and teacher. For nearly two decades she

worked as an arranger for Robert Shaw, with whom she published

countless settings of folksongs, hymns, and spirituals. She has also

composed many original scores, ranging from operas to songs on

texts by distinguished poets. She is in great demand as a leader of

workshops that offer distinctive training for composers, conductors,

and congregational song leaders.

PARKER, HORATIO (15 SEPTEMBER 1863–18 DECEMBER

1919). American composer and church musician. He studied with

George Chadwick in Boston, and later with Joseph Rheinberger

in Munich (1882–85). When he returned to the United States, he

worked as a church musician and as a professor of music theory at

Yale University (1894–1919). From 1904 until his death, he served

as dean of Yale University’s School of Music. He also conducted

various choral societies and glee clubs in the New Haven area and

beyond.

During his lifetime he was viewed as one of America’s greatest

composers. His music is generally conservative in style, with a chro-

matic manner that has come to be regarded as somewhat sentimental.

A prolific composer, he is best remembered for the oratorio Hora

novissima, op. 20, for S, A, T, B, SATB, and orch. (1893). Other

340 • PARAPHRASE MASS

choral works with solo voices and orchestra include the oratorios The

Legend of St. Christopher, op. 43 (1897) and Morven and the Grail,

op. 79 (1915); the cantata A Wanderer’s Psalm, op. 50 (1900); the

lyric rhapsody A Star Song, op. 54 (1901); and nearly 20 additional

works. Some 60 other works (or sets of pieces) include more than 30

anthems and services with organ.

PARODY. A term, used primarily in reference to 16th-century works,

designating a composition based on the entire texture of a preexist-

ing work (usually a motet or chanson). Such large-scale borrowing

was especially important in the composition of masses by composers

such as Nicolas Gombert, Thomas Crecquillon, Cristóbal de Mo-

rales, Tomás Luis de Victoria, Orlande de Lassus, and Giovanni

Pierluigi da Palestrina.

The term is also used in reference to Baroque sacred works that

derive from secular models (a fairly common occurrence in the mu-

sic of J. S. Bach). While the practice has been criticized, especially

by those who share the Romantic bias in favor of originality, more

recent appraisals have led to the recognition that reworking a piece

to fit a new text (carefully retaining the basic affect of the original)

requires a great deal of skill and sensitivity.

PARODY MASS. See MASS; PARODY.

PARROTT, ANDREW (10 MARCH 1947– ). English conductor.

An authority on historical performance practices, he has recorded

extensively with the Taverner Choir and the Taverner Consort and

Players, ensembles he founded. In his Johann Sebastian Bach re-

cordings he follows the view espoused by Joshua Rifkin and others,

namely, that Bach intended his cantatas to be performed with one

musician on a part. Parrott’s influential writings include the book The

Essential Bach Choir (Rochester, New York: Boydell Press, 2000).

PARRY, [SIR] CHARLES HUBERT (27 FEBRUARY 1848–7 OC-

TOBER 1918). English composer, teacher, and writer. With Charles

Villiers Stanford he was influential in the revival of English music at

the end of the Victorian era. After beginning a career as an underwriter

at Lloyd’s of London, he turned to music full time in 1877. From 1883

he taught at the newly established Royal College of Music, becoming

the director in 1895, a position he retained until his death. From 1900 to

1908 he served also as professor of music at Oxford University.

PARRY, CHARLES HUBERT • 341