It has already been said that the oratorio enjoyed at first a steadier and more constant development in Germany than the opera. Heinrich Schütz, whom we have mentioned as the author of the first opera given in Germany, was also the first prominent oratorio composer. He was born in 1585. By frequent visits to Venice, where he studied with Gabrieli, he kept himself in touch with the musical life of Italy. Although Dresden was the scene of his principal labors, the last twenty-five years of his life were spent in Weissenfels, where he died in 1672. His larger works are “The Passion” according to the four Evangelists, the “Story of the Resurrection,” and the “Seven Last Words.” In the second of these works, produced in Dresden in 1623, the form of the modern oratorio is clearly defined. The customary “Introitus” is for six-part chorus, and the words of the Evangelist are intoned. The more significant passages of the text are selected for characteristic music. The dramatis personæ—the Saviour, the Angel, Mary Magdelene, and some of the disciples—are given prominence and individuality in various cantilene movements, sometimes for one or two voices. This distinguishes the new form of oratorio from the older, in which everything was performed by choral masses. In Schütz’s sacred symphonies and concertos he attained far greater finish and variety in the solo numbers, and greater mastery in general. By his attempts to tell the story in dramatic form, without the aid of scenery or action, Schütz became the real founder of the modern German oratorio. We cannot suppose, however, that Handel was acquainted with the music of Schütz, for before the end of the seventeenth century his works were generally forgotten; but his greater freedom of treatment, and dramatic interest, established ideals in Germany which prevented the oratorio from yielding in that country to the degenerating theatrical influence which had such baneful effect on all forms of sacred music in Italy at this period.
Contemporary with Schütz was J. H. Schein, who was noted for his sacred concertos. Johannes Rosenmüller, who died in 1680, effected a more regular construction of the concerto. His works in this form consist of a series of separate movements, which show unity of character by the repeated presence of some principal thought. Thus the form of the cantata was established, in which Bach afterwards displayed such wonderful activity. The immediate predecessors of Bach were Johann Rudolph Ahle (1625–73), and his son Georg Ahle (1650–1706). In the oratorios of the latter the form of the aria is clearly defined.
The account that has been given of the development of Protestant Church music, and organ and clavier music, previous to Handel and Bach, may serve to show the foundations on which their monumental works were built. It was Handel’s mission to reconcile the church and secular styles in his great oratorios. His long career as a dramatic composer served as an admirable school for his talents; and when in middle life he abandoned the field of Italian opera for the oratorio, he was so well equipped that his triumphs were but as the natural result of his former discipline. His forty operas shared the fate of all operas of that time; not one holds a place on the modern stage. The operas of Handel are not musical dramas in the sense of the present day. They consist chiefly of a string of airs, with little or no dramatic action. His stage heroes are generally trivial and insipid. It was destined for Gluck and Mozart to reform the traditional Italian opera. Handel was content to avail himself of the conditions of the opera as they then existed. His opera airs are the best of his time; they are lyric, but not dramatic.
The dramatic talent of Handel did not find expression in his operas but in his oratorios. The great heroes of Jewish history, like Samson, Saul and Judas Maccabæus, are represented in a combined narrative and dramatic form. Many of his oratorio solos are more dramatic than his opera airs.
In the oratorio of “Samson,” for instance, the characters of Samson, Delila, Minoah and Micah naturally suggest the dramatic scene. But it is especially in the conflicting ideas and emotions of the people—the chorus of Israelites, in opposition to the chorus of Philistines, the heathen priests of Dagon, and the chorus of Virgins of Delila—that the dramatic conflict is sharply defined with sublime choral effects. His choruses are elemental in their irresistible and overwhelming power when sung by large masses of voices. In this respect his choruses are unique and have never been equalled. While Handel’s oratorios in general hold the middle ground between the secular and church style of his time, Bach’s great choral works belong more distinctly to the older church style of Schütz and others.
As Palestrina marks the culmination of the unaccompanied (a capella) church music of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, so Bach is the highest representative of Protestant Church music. Yet he is more than this, for in his sacred cantatas and passions he reveals a nature more profoundly religious than even Handel or Palestrina. His Passion music to St. Matthew has no rival in its special form. It is the sublimest conception in music of the trials and death of Jesus. Among similar works before and during Bach’s time, his passions are the only ones that have lived. The oratorio has replaced the passion; but the older form as perfected by Bach possesses a certain reality and intensity of religious fervor that not even the grandest oratorios of Handel can match, except possibly the “Messiah.” Notwithstanding the sublimity, variety and vocal effectiveness of the latter work, the St. Matthew Passion surpasses it in lyric pathos and dramatic fire. Handel’s long experience with the public, his Italian vocal training, the example of Purcell and other masters of the English anthem, were important factors in his artistic development, and enabled him to carry the art of solo and chorus composition to the highest perfection. On the other hand, Bach’s difficult choral style suggests the organ, and his airs, though full of religious pathos, are often stiff and archaic in style.
Great as Bach is in his vocal works, he is still greater in his instrumental music. Through him, for the first time in history, instrumental music reaches a point of influence where it predominates. He is justly considered as the true progenitor of modern instrumental music, and largely to his influence we owe the subsequent wonderful development of this youngest branch of art. Handel, on the other hand, had little influence on instrumental music. His counterpoint is more vocal than instrumental; he makes a more limited use of dissonances and modulation. Bach stood far in advance of his time in these respects, and anticipated many of the effects of the present day. His remarkable use of chromatic and enharmonic modulation is exhibited in all his principal works, especially in such movements as the great organ Fantasia in G minor. (Volume II., Peters’ Edition.)
As a master of the fugue, nay, of all polyphonic writing, Bach stands pre-eminent, a model for all time. We are overcome by the inexhaustible wealth of his ideas, that seem as boundless as the forces of nature, and we constantly feel the emotional depth and romantic sentiment of this wonderful artist.
He not only perfected the stricter forms of counterpoint, but the older, lighter forms found their ideal in his charming clavier suites, violin sonatas, etc. His “Well-Tempered Clavichord” is a unique work, one of the corner-stones of modern music.
Above all, his organ works are the very central point and acme of his achievement. The great Prelude and Fugue in A minor, the Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, the Toccata in F, the Passacaglia, and other organ compositions are to be classed with Beethoven’s symphonies as among the greatest works of art.