Laudate Pueri, Mozart's Vespers, New Haven Oratorio Choir (NHOC), Spring 2011. Beatus Vir, Mozart's Vespers, New Haven Oratorio Choir (NHOC), Spring 2011. Kol' slaven nash Gospod - New Haven Oratorio Choir (NHOC) May 2010. Baroque sacred music - oratorio. Baroque era is known for its several grand forms of church music, including the passion, the oratorio, or the cantata.
They were all based on texts refering to the sacred religious book (Bible), although the setting was different between these three music forms. The passion was based on Jesus' suffering and was based on the Gospel texts, the Oratorio was more poetic and could be about any other Biblical story, while cantatas were based on Biblical texts. It is quite remarkable that in the midst of separation between the sacred and the secular, composers wrote for both of the worlds. They didn't necessarily fought on either side of the schism. And that's understandable since they wanted to get famous, or saw it as a way to get jobs or get paid by different employers (even the Protestant J.S.
Oratorio. History[edit] 1600, origins of the oratorio[edit] Although medieval plays such as the Ludus Danielis, and Renaissance dialogue motets such as those of the Oltremontani had characteristics of an oratorio, the first oratorio is usually seen as Emilio de Cavalieri's Rappresentatione di Anima, et di Corpo.
Monteverdi composed Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda which can be considered as the first secular oratorio. 1650–1700[edit]