In Johann Sebastian Bach's case many of the larger cantatas are actually called oratorios ; and the Christmas Oratorio is a collection of six church cantatas actually intended for performance on six different days, though together forming as complete an artistic whole as any classical oratorio.

The first oratorio to be called by that name is Pietro della Valle ’ s Oratorio della Purificazione, but due to its brevity ( only 12 minutes long ) and the fact that its other name was " dialogue ", we can see that there was much ambiguity in these names.

This instrument is called for in the scores of P. D. Q. Bach's oratorio The Seasonings, as well as the Serenude ( for devious instruments ) and Shepherd on the Rocks, With a Twist.

Conceived at various times as a free-form oratorio and as an opera ( Berlioz ultimately called it a " légende dramatique ") its travelogue form and cosmic perspective have made it an extreme challenge to stage as an opera.

In 1733, the musician and composer Handel composed an oratorio based on her life, called Athalia, calling her a " Baalite Queen of Judah Daughter of Jezebel.

" The poem was later set to music as an oratorio, also called Alexander's Feast, by George Frederick Handel.

Among her significant works is a symphony for two oboes, two flutes, two violins, and double bass ( 1765 ), a tripartite oratorio ( 1768 ), a Singspiel called Erwin und Elmire ( 1776 ), based on a text by Goethe, and a divertimento for piano, clarinet, viola, and violoncello ( around 1780 ).

Although Elgar himself disapproved of the term " oratorio " being applied to this work, it was consistently referred to as an oratorio throughout Elgar's lifetime, and is usually called such in studies of the work today.

The critical response to the work's initial performance was mixed ; while the Zeitung für die Elegante Welt's critic wrote that the oratorio contained " a few admirable passages ", a review in the Freymüthige Blätter called the piece " too artificial in structure and lacking expressiveness, especially in the vocal music ", and claimed that the performance " was unable to achieve really marked approbation ".

Other newspapers called Mackenzie's score " a comic oratorio ", " devoid of memorable tunes " or " peculiarly unattractive, almost entirely devoid of humour, strangely wanting in charm, brightness, fizz and spontaneity " and opined that " some of the best lines were appropriated to the most severe music ".

* 1742 – George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah makes its world-premiere in Dublin, Ireland.

Not the Messiah is a spoof of Handel's oratorio Messiah.

* Messiah, oratorio by Haendel

This placed a premium on being able to rewrite music for whichever singers or musicians were best suited for a performance — Handel produced different versions of the Messiah oratorio almost every year.

* 1741 – George Frideric Handel completes his oratorio Messiah

* 1742: Messiah, oratorio by Handel premiered in Dublin

* April 13 – George Frideric Handel's oratorio The Messiah is first performed in Dublin, Ireland.

The pinnacle of the oratorio is found in George Frideric Handel's works, notably Messiah and Israel in Egypt.

In June 2007, " Not the Messiah ( He's a Very Naughty Boy )", a comic oratorio by Idle and John Du Prez premiered at the inaugural Luminato arts festival in Toronto.

, the most recent public performance of the song by Python members was as an encore on the oratorio Not the Messiah ( He's a Very Naughty Boy ) at the Royal Albert Hall on 23 October 2009, with Palin doing the lead performance and with Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam in the Mounties chorus and Carol Cleveland as the girl.

Messiah ( HWV 56 ) is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible, and from the Psalms included with the Book of Common Prayer ( which are worded slightly differently from their King James counterparts ).

He turned to English oratorio in the 1730s, in response to changes in public taste ; Messiah was his sixth work in this genre.

The effort of writing so much music in so short a time was not unusual for Handel and his contemporaries ; Handel commenced his next oratorio, Samson, within a week of finishing Messiah, and completed his draft of this new work in a month.

A famous musical reflection on the Passion is Part II of Messiah, an oratorio by George Frideric Handel, though the text here draws from Old Testament prophecies rather than from the Gospels themselves.

The musical service, which was originally sung by the blind children only, was made fashionable by the generosity of George Frideric Handel, who frequently had Messiah performed there, and who bequeathed to the hospital a fair copy ( full score ) of his greatest oratorio.

" Cibber was particularly admired by Handel, who wrote numerous parts especially for her including the contralto arias in his 1741 oratorio Messiah, the role of Micah in Samson, the role of Lichas in Hercules and the role of David in Saul among others.

No person of sensibility, who has had the good fortune to hear Mrs Cibber sing the oratorio of the Messiah, will find it very difficult to give credit to accounts of the most wonderful effects produced from so powerful a union.

Bach's contemporaries included Georg Philipp Telemann and Georg Friedrich Händel, the latter best known for the oratorio Messiah ....

There was a royal performance of Messiah in 1743, which was a success and began a tradition of Lenten oratorio performances.

) Much of the oratorio repertoire, from Handel's Messiah to Mendelssohn's Elijah, is best suited to a bass-baritone with the ability to combine a rich, dark tone with a smooth, high-lying cantabile line.

Handel's oratorio Messiah ( 1742 ) includes three well-known da capo arias, " Rejoice Greatly " ( for soprano ), " He Was Despised " ( for alto voice ) and " The Trumpet Shall Sound " ( for bass ).

He owed to his vocal mentor Charles Santley a taste and technique perfectly suited to oratorio, of which Handel's Messiah was his favourite work.

* George Frideric Handel – The Messiah, an oratorio, first performed in Dublin

The song is used at the end of Not the Messiah ( He's a Very Naughty Boy ), the comedic oratorio written by Eric Idle and collaborator John Du Prez.

In June 2007, Oundjian conducted the world premiere of an oratorio by Idle and John DuPrez based on the Monty Python movie Life of Brian, titled Not the Messiah ( He's a Very Naughty Boy ), at the first Luminato Festival in Toronto, Canada.

* The Creation ( Haydn ), a 1798 oratorio by Joseph Haydn

Schmidt's crowning achievement was the oratorio Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln ( 1935 – 37 ), a setting of passages from the Book of Revelation.

* St. Paul ( oratorio ), work by Felix Mendelssohn originally entitled ' Paulus ' ( in its German version )

The two then went their separate ways, and Sullivan produced his Festival Te Deum ( 1872 ), an oratorio, The Light of the World ( 1873 ), and other pieces, including incidental music for West End productions of several Shakespeare plays.

The following year he produced his oratorio Die Israeliten in der Wüste ( The Israelites in the Desert ), a composition remarkable not only for its great beauty but for the resemblance of its plan to that of Felix Mendelssohn's Elijah.

* Georg Riedel ( Altstadt Kantor ), " monumental oratorio ", the entire Gospel of Matthew ( 1724 )

One of those stage works, Jeanne d ' Arc au bûcher ( 1935 ), a " dramatic oratorio " ( to words by Paul Claudel ), is thought of as one of his finest works.

His works include an oratorio Rebekah, The Lord is King ( Psalm 97 ), many services and anthems, and 246 hymn tunes ( published in 1897 in one volume ), as well as some partsongs ( among them the popular Sweet and Low ), and some pieces for the pipe organ.

Among his works as a composer are Royal Wedding Serenata ( 1863 ), concert overture Les Travailleurs de la mer ( 1869 ), the oratorio Gideon ( produced Gloucester, 1871 ), overture to William Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost ( 1875 ), Piano Concerto in A minor, marches and songs.

Four of his daughters ( of whom the youngest, Mary, married Charles Cowden Clarke ) were gifted singers ; but the most famous was Clara Novello ( 1818 – 1908 ), whose beautiful high soprano and pure style made her one of the greatest vocalists, in opera as well as in oratorio and on the concert stage, from 1833 onwards.

In subsequent poetical works he was more successful, notably the Fall of Jerusalem ( 1820 ) and The Martyr of Antioch ( 1822, based on the life of Saint Margaret the Virgin ), which was used as the basis for an oratorio by Arthur Sullivan.

He interrupted his work on Les Béatitudes to produce ( among many shorter works ) the oratorio Rédemption ( 1871, revised 1874 ), the secular cantata Les Éolides ( 1876 ), the Trois Pièces for organ ( 1878 ), and the piano Quintet ( 1879 ).

His best known work is the oratorio Les sept paroles du Christ (" The Seven Last Words of Christ " ), which continues to be given an occasional airing ; his Toccata in G ( 1889 ), for the organ, is also heard now and then.

The Creation () is an oratorio written between 1796 and 1798 by Joseph Haydn ( H. 21 / 2 ), and considered by many to be his masterpiece.