What is the difference between a cantata and an oratorio ?
Musical questions and answers thread
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Roehre, my sincerest apologies for not acknowledging. It was a brilliant answer, just what I wanted in fact - and a lot more.
I suppose there was so much to take in and reflect upon that I was somehow distracted from a cheap and cheerful response but that is a poor excuse indeed. At least others noted their gratitude.
Poor show Alison.
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Roehre
Originally posted by Alison View PostRoehre, my sincerest apologies for not acknowledging. It was a brilliant answer, just what I wanted in fact - and a lot more.
I suppose there was so much to take in and reflect upon that I was somehow distracted from a cheap and cheerful response but that is a poor excuse indeed. At least others noted their gratitude.
Poor show Alison.
(I've restored the original text, slightly amended)
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Originally posted by EdgeleyRob View PostWhat is the difference between a cantata and an oratorio ?
Bach's Christmas Oratorio is in reality 6 cantatas.. His Easter Oratorio is really a cantata.
Oratorios usually use biblical texts, but The Dream od Gerontius is set to a 19th century poem.
A clear answer is well nigh impossible.
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Roehre
Originally posted by EdgeleyRob View PostWhat is the difference between a cantata and an oratorio ?
while cantatas are used to set both sacred (or texts meant for use in liturgies, like JSBach's) or secular texts.
The latter can cover a whole range of subjects, from coffee houses (Bach Kaffeekantate) to memorials for deceased emperors (Beethoven: Cantate auf den Tod Kaisers Leopold II WoO 89), as wedding present (Brahms: Kleine Hochzeitskantate BW-WoO 16), or even as part of an opera (Schnittke: Seid nüchtern und Wachet (Faust-Kantate).
Hence: an oratorio might be named/called a cantata, but vice versa that's not true.
Both cantatas and oratorios can be rather short or to the contrary evening filling works, though oratorios generally tend to be longer works.
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Originally posted by EdgeleyRob View PostRoehre and EA,many thanks for the replies.
So a concert performance of an opera could be pretty much classed as an oratorio.
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Roehre
Originally posted by EdgeleyRob View PostRoehre and EA,many thanks for the replies.
So a concert performance of an opera could be pretty much classed as an oratorio.
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Originally posted by Roehre View Post...Elgar's Dream)...
Hence: an oratorio might be named/called a cantata, but vice versa that's not true.
Both cantatas and oratorios can be rather short or to the contrary evening filling works, though oratorios generally tend to be longer works.
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Originally posted by mercia View Postwhen the St Matthew Passion is staged does it become an opera ?
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I don't think every Oratorio is on a Biblical texts, though the texts are normally of a religious or spiritual text, like Dvorak: St Ludmila. What about Tippett's A Child of Our Time, which is normally classed as an Oratorio. Then there are works such as Honegger's Joan of Arc or Martinu's Epic of Gilgamesh, and what genre does Schumann's Scenes from Goethe's Faust come under? Tricky one this, in some respects.
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