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ORATORIO. forms of illustration are essentially different. Dramatic expression necessarily presupposes the presence of the Actor, who describes his own emotions in his own words. Epic power is entirely subjective. Its office is, so to act upon the hearer's imagination, as to present to him a series of pictures whether of natural scenery, of historical events, or even of dramatic scenes enacted out of sight sufficiently vivid to give him a clear idea of the situation intended to be described. Now, if in 'Deeper and deeper still' Handel has given us a convincing proof of his power as a dramatist, it is equally certain that, in the Flute Symphony to 'Augellati che Cantate' in 'Rinaldo,' the Pastoral Symphony in the 'Messiah,' and the Dead March in 'Saul,' he has shown himself no less successful as a Tone painter. The perfection of these wonderful pictures may be tested by the entire absence of the necessity for scenic accessories to give them their full force. When Mr. Sims Reeves declaims 'Deeper and deeper still,' in ordinary evening dress, he speaks as directly to our hearts, and pourtrays Jephtha's agony of soul quite as truly, as he could possibly do were he dressed in the robes of an Israelitish Judge. Before we have listened to the first three notes of the Dead March in 'Saul,' we have called up an imaginary picture of a Funeral Procession, compared with which the finest stage effect that ever machinist put together would confess itself a heap of worthless tinsel. The value lies in the Music itself; the only condition needful for its success is, that it should be well performed. In possessing the power of producing such Music, Handel was more than half prepared for the elaboration of his gigantic scheme; but one thing was still wanting—the religious element. The Scripture Narrative, considered merely as history, needed for its illustration no farther qualifications than those of which we have already spoken. But it was not enough that it should be treated merely as history; it was indispensable that its symbolical meaning should be brought out; and that that meaning should be made the turning-point of the whole. As means of effecting this, dramatic and epic expression were equally powerless; but Handel's resources were not yet at an end. Since the production of 'La Resurrezione'—in which this religious element was wholly wanting—he had written the Twelve Chandos Anthems; works now so little known that it is necessary to explain that they are not Anthems, in our present acceptation of the term, but grand Sacred Cantatas, consisting of Overtures, Solos, and Choruses, with accompaniments for a full Orchestra, and so highly developed, that many of them are quite as grand and as long as a whole Act of an Oratorio. The chief characteristic of these great works—as of the Utrecht 'Te Deum,' and 'Jubilate,' and the two settings of the 'Te Deum' for the Duke of Chandos, produced during the same period—is deep religious feeling. Not the abstract devotional feeling peculiar to true Ecclesiastical Music, like that of Palestrina. From first to last, Handel never attempted this. But, the sincere reverence of a devout mind, accompanied by a keen appreciation of the inner meaning of the text—a thorough understanding of the spirit, as well as of the letter. And here Handel's learning and ingenuity proved of incalculable advantage to him. The dignity of his grand Choruses demanded that all the subtle mysteries of Counterpoint should be brought into requisition as means of assisting their artistic development; and, of these mysteries he was thoroughly master. The smoothness of his part-writing is, indeed, little less than miraculous. However close the imitation, or complicated the involutions of the several Voices, we never meet with an inharmonious collision. He seems always to have aimed at making his parts run on velvet—whereas Bach, writing on a totally different principle, evidently delighted in bringing harmony out of discord, and made a point of introducing hard Passing-notes in order to avail himself of the pleasant effect of their ultimate resolution. Again, no other writer, either of earlier or later date, with the sole exception of Palestrina, ever possessed so great a power of concealing his learning. Carissimi, when complimented on this great quality, is reported to have said, 'Ah! questo facile, quanto é difficile!' (Ah! this ease, how difficult it is to attain!) But Carissimi never imagined the possibility of such a complication as that exhibited in the Stretto of the 'Amen Chorus'—one of the closest examples of Imitation in existence, and that creeps in so unobtrusively that the very last feeling it is likely to excite is wonder at its ingenuity.

These, then, were the resources which Handel found ready for his use, when his genius enabled him to strike out the splendid Ideal to which he owes by far the greater part of his world-wide reputation. If we examine his Oratorios, one by one, we shall find that that Ideal was susceptible of a threefold expression. It was capable of being embodied in a wholly dramatic, or a wholly epic form; or, in a form radically dramatic but relieved by frequent episodes, of an epic, a didactic, or even of a contemplative character. Though his two greatest works, 'The Messiah,' and 'Israel in Ægypt,' are purely epic, there can be no doubt that the dramatic form—without, of course, either Scenery or Action—was the one which he himself preferred; and, in carrying it out, he adhered strictly to the conditions at that time observed with regard to the technical construction of the Lyric Drama. Of the hundreds of Airs he wrote for his Oratorios, we shall not find one which cannot be referred to one or other of the well-defined classes into which the Italian Opera Airs of the 18th century were, by common consent both of Composers and Singers, invariably divided. [See, pp. 509-511, vol. ii.] Thus, we see the Aria Cantabile most strikingly exemplified in 'Angels ever bright and fair'; the Aria di Portamento in 'I know that my Redeemer liveth'; the Aria di mezzo carattere in 'Waft her, Angels, through the skies'; the Aria parlante in 'He was despised'; and the