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 ORATORY

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ORATORY

that they express the national religious ideal of a Protestant Christian people more adequately than does their form of worship. This undoubtedly ac- counts for the interest taken in oratorio performances by the people in England and in Protestant Germany. Joseph Haj'dn (1732-1809) produced two of the greatest oratorios which we possess: "The Creation" and "The Seasons". While composed to secular texts, they breathe the most tender piety and joy through an inexhaustible wealth of lyric and lofty music. A third oratorio, "Ritorno di Tobia", on a Biblical text, has not the same importance, nor does Mozart (1756-91), in his only oratorio, "Davidde penitente", attain the artistic level of most of his pro- ductions. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) wrote one oratorio, "The Mount of Olives", which shows him at his best.

Fehx Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-47), in "Eli- jah" and "St. Paul", returns to the early Protestant feature of letting the supposed congregation or audi- ence participate in the performance by singing the chorales or church hymns, the texts of which consist of reflections and meditations on what has preceded. From this period the oratorio begins to be cultivated almost exclusively by Catholics. Franz Liszt (1811- 86), with his "Christus" and "Legende der Heiligen Elizabeth", opens up a new and distinctly Catholic era. France, which, since the days of Charpentier, had practically neglected the oratorio, probably on account of the opera appealing more strongly to French taste and temperament, and because of the lack of amateur singers has, within the last thirty years, furnished a number of remarkable works. Charles-Frangois Gounod (1818-93) with his "Re- demption", and "Mors et Vita", gave a renewed im- petus to the cultivation of the oratorio. The "Sam- son and Delilah" of Camille Saint-Saens (1835 — ) may be performed either as an oratorio or as an opera; as opera it has attained the greater favour. Jules Massenet (1842 — ) has essayed the form with his "Eve" and "Mary Magdalen", but his style is en- tirely too sensational and melodramatic to carry the text. Gabriel PiernS's (186.3 — ) "Children's Crusade" and the smaller work, "The Children at Bethlehem", have both obtained great popularity in Europe and America.

Italy 's sole representative of any note in more than two hundred years is Don Lorenzo Pero.si (1872 — ), with his trilogy "The Passion of Our Lord according to St. Mark", "The Transfiguration of Christ", and "The Resurrection of Lazarus", a "Christmas Ora- torio", "Leo the Great", and "The Last- Judgment". Belgium and England have produced the three most remarkable exponents of the oratorio within the last fifty years. Cesar Auguste Franck's (1822-90) ora- torios, "Ruth", "Rebecca", "Redemption", and, above all, his "Beatitudes", rank among the greatest of modern works of the kind. Edward William Elgar (1857 — ) has become famous by his "Dream of Ger- ontius" and his "Apostles". But Edgar Tinel (1854 — ) is probably the most gifted among the mod- ern Catholics who have reclaimed the oratorio from non-Catholic supremacy. His world-famous "St. ' Francis of Assisi" is perhaps more remarkable for the spiritual heights it reveals than for its dramatic power. Other works of his which have attracted attention are "Godoleva" and "St. Catherine". It is a happy omen that all these authors, in the fore-front of pres- ent-day composers, command the highest creative and constructive skill which enables them to turn into Catholic channels all the modern conquests in means of expression. The Catholic Oratorio Society of New York was founded in 1904 to promote the knowledge and reproduction of oratorios that best exemplify the religious ideal.

Capecelatro, tr. Pope, The Life of St. Philip Neri (London, 1894); Kretzschmar, FUhrer durch den Concertsaat, II (Leipzig*

1899): Reimann, Geschichte der Musiklheorie (Leipzig, 1898); Spitta, Die Passionsmitsiken von Sebastian Bach und Heinrich Schiltz (Hamburg. 189.3) ; Jahrbuch der Musikbibliothek Peters filr 1903 (Leipzig, 1904).

Joseph Otten.

Oratory (Lat. oralorium, from orare, to pray), as a general term, signifies a place of prayer, but tech- nically it means a structure other than a parish church, set aside by ecclesiastical authority for prayer and the celebration of Mass. Oratories seem to have origi- nated from the chapels erected over the tombs of the early martyrs where the faithful resorted to pray, and also from the necessity of having a place of worship for the people in country districts when churches proper were restricted to cathedral cities. We also find early mention of private oratories for the celebra- tion of Mass by bishops, and later of oratories at- tached to convents and to the residences of nobles. In the Eastern Church, where the parochial organization is neither so complete nor so rigid as in the West, pri- vate oratories were so numerous as to constitute an abuse. In the Latin Church oratories are classed as (1) public, (2) semipubHc, and (3) private.

(1) Public Oratories are canonically erected by the bishop and are perpetually dedicated to the Divine service. They must have an entrance and exit from the public road. Priests who celebrate Mass in public oratories must conform to the office proper to those oratories, whether secular or regular. If, however, the calendar of an oratory permits a votive Mass to be said, the visiting priest may celebrate in conformity with his own diocesan or regular calendar.

(2) Semipublic OR.-iTORiES are those which, though erected in a private building, are destined for the use of a community. Such are tlie oratories of seminaries, pious congregations, colleges, hospitals, prisons, and such institutions. If, however, there be several ora- tories in one house, it is only the one in which the Blessed Sacrament is preserved that has the privileges of a semipublic oratory. All semipublic oratories (which class technically includes the private chapel of a bishop) are on the same footing as public oratories in regard to the celebration of Mass. The calendar of feasts to be observed in them (unless they belong to a regular order having its proper calendar) is that of the diocese. In oratories belonging to nuns, the feasts of their community are to be celebrated in accordance with the decrees or indults they have received from the Holy See. Regulars visiting a semipublic oratory cannot celebrate the feasts of saints of their own order unless the calendar proper to the oratory prescribes the same or permits of a votive Mass. Public and semipubhc oratories are ordinarily under the control of the bishop. The Congregation of Rites declared (23 Jan., 1899) : " In these (oratories), as, by the authority of the ordinary, the holy sacrifice of the Mass can be offered, so also all those present thereat can satisfy thereby the precept which obliges the faithful to hear Mass on prescribed days." The same decree also gives an authoritative definition of the three species of ora- tories.

(3) Private Oratories are those erected in private houses for the convenience of some person or family by an indult of the Holy See. They can be erected only by permission of the pope. Oratories in private houses date from Apostolic times when the Sacred Mysteries could not be publicly celebrated owing to the persecu- tions. Even after the peace of Constantine. the cus- tom continued to prevail. Kings and nobles espe- cially had such oratories erected in their palaces. As early as the reign of Emperor Justinian, we find regu- lations concerning private oratories as distinguished from public churches, and prohibitions against saying Mass in private houses (Novel., Iviii and cxxxi). Per- missions to celebrate were granted, however, freely in the West by popes and councils. The latest decree regulating private oratories is that of the Sacred Con-