The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-11-23
ORATORIO and The OPERA.
THE REVIVAL Or MENDELS-
SOHN'S est. PAUL"
4 Consideration OF the vitality -
the Oratorio Form-No Masters OF
II Now Liying-The Opening Of the
Regular winter season Of Opera.

the OfatOrlO FOrm-NO Masters OF
II Now Liying-The Opening Of the
Regular winter season Of Opera.
The revival OF Memberships st. Paul"
was the most interesting musical occurrence
Of a week not barren of attractions. No
thoughtful lover Of oratorio could have
failed to wonder that this music was no,
heard more frequently. The chief beauty
OF the oratorio form is its contrast between
solo and chorus. It's value az type lies
in the opportunities II provides for the
employment Of great masses Of voices.
Only oratorio and cantata furnish concert
field for the great chorus, which il potent
factor in musical art. Abundant testimony
has been given as to the effect of many
voices singing together even in unison.
st. Augustine records that his first hearing
Of the Ambrosian chant moved him to tears
and who is there to-day who can hear un-
moved the singing OF many children; Add
to unison harmonic and contrapuntal effects,
and you have grand choral architecture.
There are not few writer's however,
who contend that the oratorio form has
outlived it's usefulness Their argument is
that its dramatic pretensions are absurd.
How foolish 1t is. they say for a man in
evening dress to stand up and intone some
OF the words Of Eli jah or Paul and then sit
down while a soprano arises and endeavors
TO utter some sentiments appropriate to the
occasion, after which huge chorus bursts
into pean Of something or other.
Nothing is easier than to ridcule an
art form. All that one needs TO do is to
close his eyes to the symbolism. which Is
the foundation OF all art. Demand literal
view Of the painted scenery in a theatre,
and Shakespeare becomes infantile. Re-
fuse TO regard opera as a form Of the poetic
drama, and the singing becomes species
Of mild insanity. Decline to accept the
process Of reduction employed in ordinary
pictures, and painting is foolish.
But those who make this kind Of argument
against the oratorio as form do not realize
that the pursuit Of their line OF reasoning
TO it's logical conclusion would furnish the
most substantial support Of the thing to
which they object. II the lack Of illusion
in an art form is to be offered as a reason
for its abolition. then the oratorio should
| survive both opera and drama, because
it uses less symbolism than either and
stands more nearly upon the plane Of poetry
which appeals TO the imagination alone.
Inc CTlltl tTOuDlt WITH inc oIdloliO w.
day is not that II has outlived it's early
mission, but that it is destitute Of master
opponents. The music Of the end OF the
nineteenth century was Il, de steele. Il
was Of the flesh and the passions. II had
not a jot or little Of the religious alb
straction Of the oratoro. Brahms, it Is
true. wrote a German Requiem and that
work will live, at least in the records OF
the time Dvoiak wrote a requiem, too
but the shadows OF the Spectre's Bride
and st. Ludamila' we're over il. The
profound tones Of religious conviction never
sounded In II.
Edgar Tinels 'Franciscus' was another
Of the late nineteenth-century essays ir
oratorio, but what a carnal festival OF
naked tones Here was a frenzied orgy OF
orchestral tints. passionate dramatiza
| ton OF the feshly sensations Of saint
before sainthood had touched him. An
oratorio surcharged with Gallo gic
erotism and made OF music about as piou,
As that Of the final scene Of -Siegfried'
No, the salvation OF the form was not Il
| be found in that,
Gounod tried his hand az oratorio Hav
ing kissed all the Marauerites who prom
| elldOtl tnEOuGil Ut TIC Nj oR'id
| and having soied his fingers with th'
Weldon woman, he. like the stated List
| turned religious mystic in his old age. ant
wrote a sweetly pretty Redemption.
| There Ia an oratorio that would pleas
even the patrons Of the Metropolitan, Will
| its theme OF Faust's yearning for youth
| Labelled the Redeemer motive, and its marci
| to Calvary, recalling in every measure tn
tinselled cortege in La Refine de Saba
In England they make oratorios annually
lust as they make other -Brummagem
wares. They have the Handel and Mendels
sohn lasts in the British Museum correctl,
Labelled, and they have royal training
| school for musical shoemakers. Englisl
! composers are graduated in classes, anC
/ England expects every man OF them Il
do his duty. Handel lived for years IL
England: he died there. Mendelssohl
visited the country copiously. He com
posed a Scotch symphony. He wrote on
Of his masterpieces, Elijah" for the Bir
min CHAM festival. In every British mu
sician's household is reared an altar to tn
memory OF Handel and Mendelssohn, I've
Germans who made England musical.
famous. Every good English compose
|
tatas. Tho festivals TEEN with them
But Hans Sachs is dead. and with the last
which he left these prentice hands cal
only cobble.
l. it wonderful, them that we have TO &
back again and again TO the works OF Hande
and Mendelssohn' Is 1t astonishing tina
their admired conceptions strike us at eac
repetition as unapproachable? They Ger
tainly remain unapproached by any sue
cessors. To find their peers we must go L
the pages of tho prince of oratorio writers
the old cantor Of Leipsic. But the Mat
thew Passion" is beyond the flight of tn
public imagination. Its atmosphere is to-
rarefied for groundlings. On the othe
hand the plain virility Of Handel and tn
elegant fuency Of Mendelssohn are easil
comprehended.
But lot us not SCOT at the polish Of Men
delssohn. II il a common custom to snee
at him because he was so refined in hi
methods. People sometimes speak Of hr
IA Kiping spoke Of Stevenson (whos
shoes he was not worthy to unlacc): "Ther
is a writer named Robert Louis Stevenso
who makes delicate mosaics in words an
files out to a hair" But Mendelssohn ha
| his moments of power and they are not a