The passion-music of Bach's time, as we have already seen, was the complement of the mysteries of Mediæval days. ❋ Unknown (1876)
The fragments of the second part are in the form of the passion-music, and include five tenor recitatives, narrating the dialogue between ❋ Unknown (1876)
Schütz, however, was the first to establish the passion-music in genuine oratorio form. ❋ Unknown (1876)
So should the passion-music close, and not with fugue of praise and triumph like an oratorio. ❋ Unknown (1876)
The conclusion of this period brings us to the second stage in the evolution of the oratorio; namely, the passion-music, which may be regarded as the connecting link between the earlier form as developed by the Italian composers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the oratorio as it appeared after it had felt the mighty influence of Handel. ❋ Unknown (1876)
The passion-music was usually assigned to three priests, one of whom recited or intoned the part of ❋ Unknown (1876)
The passion-music of Handel was but a weak prelude to the colossal works which were to follow from his pen. ❋ Unknown (1876)
Johann Sebastiani succeeded Schütz, and in 1672 published a passion-music, in which the narrative appears in recitative form and solidly harmonized chorales are used, -- with this peculiarity, that only the treble was sung, the other voices being taken by the strings. ❋ Unknown (1876)
The passion-music was the direct outgrowth of the passion-play. ❋ Unknown (1876)
In 1829 he brought out the latter's "St. Matthew" passion-music after it had lain concealed for an entire century. ❋ Unknown (1876)
The chorus, as in the passion-music of Bach, has the reflective numbers and moralizes on the various situations as they occur, except in one number, "Now we believe," where it declaims the words as a part of the narrative itself. ❋ Unknown (1876)
The voice from heaven ( "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?") is represented, as was often done in the passion-music, by the soprano choir, which gives it peculiar significance and makes it stand out in striking contrast with the rest of the work. ❋ Unknown (1876)
It is difficult to define the exact form of the work, though it is nearly always classed as a secular oratorio, principally because of the introduction of the narrator, after the style of the passion-music. ❋ Unknown (1876)
We have examined the sacred dramas, with their musical setting, in Italy, and the passion-music in Germany; and now comes the oratorio in England, -- the oratorio as we know it and hear it to-day. ❋ Unknown (1876)
With Bach, the passion-music accomplished its purpose, and we now enter upon the third and last stage of the evolution of oratorio. ❋ Unknown (1876)
"It seems right that he should have retained the most primitive form of the oratorio, that of the passion-music. ❋ Unknown (1876)
"The narrator is evidently copied from the evangelist in Bach's passion-music; but by no means with a like necessity. ❋ Unknown (1876)
