A Handbook
BY GEORGE P. UPTON
CHICAGO
A. C. McCLURG AND COMPANY
1893
Copyright
By A. C. McClurg and Co.
A.D. 1886.
The "Standard Oratorios" is intended as acompanion to the "Standard Operas;"and with this purpose in view the compilerhas followed as closely as possiblethe same method in the arrangement and presentationof his scheme. The main object has beento present to the reader a comprehensive sketchof the oratorios which may be called "standard,"outlining the sacred stories which they tell, andbriefly indicating and sketching their principalnumbers, accompanied in each case with a shortbiography of the composer and such historicalmatter connected with the various works as isof special interest. The compiler has also includedin his scheme a sketch of the origin anddevelopment of the Oratorio as illustrated in itsthree principal evolutionary stages, together withdescriptions of several works which are not oratoriosin the strict sense, but at the same time are sacred[4]compositions written upon a large scale and usuallyperformed by oratorio societies, such as Bach's"Passion Music" and "Magnificat," Berlioz's,Mozart's, and Verdi's Requiems, Mendelssohn's"Hymn of Praise," Handel's "Dettingen TeDeum," Schumann's "Paradise and the Peri," andRubinstein's "Tower of Babel."
As in the case of the "Standard Operas," thework has been prepared for the general publicrather than for musicians, and as far as practicable,technical terms have been avoided. Description,not criticism, has been the purpose of the volume,and the various works are described as fully asthe necessarily brief space allotted to each wouldallow. The utmost pains have been taken to securehistorical and chronological accuracy, inasmuch asthese details are nearly always matters of controversy.The favor which has been so generouslyaccorded to the "Standard Operas" leads the compilerto believe that the "Standard Oratorios"will also be welcomed by those who enjoy thesacred music of the great masters, and that it willprove a valuable addition to other works of musicalreference.
G. P. U.
Chicago, September, 1886.