[YBU]⋙ [PDF] A History of the Oratorio Vol 4 The Oratorio in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Howard E Smither 9780807825112 Books

A History of the Oratorio Vol 4 The Oratorio in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Howard E Smither 9780807825112 Books

Download As PDF : A History of the Oratorio Vol 4 The Oratorio in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Howard E Smither 9780807825112 Books

A History of the Oratorio Vol 4 The Oratorio in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Howard E Smither 9780807825112 Books

Although Howard Smither confronts the problems of historiography in the introduction to his Volume 4 history of the oratorio, he does not meet them head on. As such, this well-researched volume fails to achieve the much-elusive need for a comprehensive history of the 19th century choral phenomenon.

The choral festival became a unique phenomenon in the 19th century, and this was especially the case in Germany, yet the extent and scale of these large social events is only hinted at in Smither's history. Instead, he focuses on works that are identified as "oratorios." This may define the genre in continuity with his first three (excellent) volumes. Unfortunately, in the nineteenth century, the oratorio took an abrupt turn, and Smither, by adopting a rigid definition, fails to . In this work, he needed to draw on some of the insights of sociology and "new musicology." His analysis is in many ways conservative, but it fails to convey what exactly the oratorio *was.*

This is to say, as much as I appreciate Smither's discussion of Liszt's "Legend of St. Elizabeth," works like Mahler's Symphony of a Thousand get scant treatment, and other works such as the Berlioz Requiem, Dvorak's Stabat Mater and Requiem or Bruckner's great E-flat Mass disappear from the discussion completely. Yet these clearly are part of the genre...and more importantly, part of the genre known to audiences today. They were performed alongside "oratorios" at the very festivals Smither describes. With his (graduate student's) research in the frequency of performance of "oratorios" the reader is therefore left to imagine how frequently those works were performed in comparison to the blown-up genres of huge Requiems and other large choral/orchestral works. The increasing turn to these hybrid genres and away from traditional oratorio librettos is very much part of the history---a part Smither both ignores and misrepresents.

An additional omission is the cultural esteem of composers and music, as well as that of composition. How did writing for the choral festivals affect a composer's reputation and reception in other genres?

Smither also seems unwilling to observe literary and cultural trends, such as the deplorable state of poetry after the Revolutions of 1848 and the domestication of poets between that time period and that of the Grundungzeit of the 1870s. The librettist Otto Roquette (of St. Elizabeth) is completely forgotten today, yet he was immensely popular among composers of now-forgotten lieder. Did Carl Lowe's sixty-page long settings of Roquette's Ballads have something to do with Liszt's approach to his librettist? The decline in oratorio output after 1848 coincides with other musical trends such as the crisis in German symphonic output between Schumann and Brahms. Smither does not even consider this decline and the tremendous social upheavals it reflected. One place I would start would be Arthur Schnitzler's hilarious portrayal of an Austrian choral concert in his short story "Lieutenant Gustl."

I much appreciated his attention on the history of the oratorio in America, but if I was to compare Smither's history with, say, Joseph Horowitz's "Wagner Nights," which covers similar territory, I would have a very very different perception of music history in this not-German yet not British country, yet an equal appreciation of how the music actually goes. Smither's musical analysis often has a feel of "now I'm going to analyze because a music book without analysis will not be taken seriously, so here it is, even though it doesn't help me make a point."

Smither's treatment of the 20th century is perfunctory and incomplete. Stopping at the first world war and devoting space to the numerous omissions of the 19th century would have made for a far better book.


Tags : A History of the Oratorio: Vol. 4: The Oratorio in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries [Howard E. Smither] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. With this volume, Howard Smither completes his monumental History of the Oratorio</i>. Volumes 1 and 2,Howard E. Smither,A History of the Oratorio: Vol. 4: The Oratorio in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries,The University of North Carolina Press,0807825115,Religious - Christian,Christianity,Genres & Styles - Classical,Great BritainBritish Isles,History,History & Criticism - General,Instruction & Study - Voice,MUSIC Genres & Styles Classical,MUSIC History & Criticism,MUSIC Religious Christian,Music,MusicSongbooks,Non-Fiction,SACRED MUSIC,Sacred & religious music,ScholarlyGraduate,Sets, any number,UNIVERSITY PRESS,United States,Western Europe,Western music: periods & styles,amateur choral societies; music festivals; aesthetic theory; criticism; historicism; romanticism; nationalism; libretto; Friedrich Schneider; Louis Spohr; Felix Mendelssohn; Robert Schumann; Franz Liszt; William Crotch; George MacFarren; C. Hubert H. Parry; Edward Elgar; John Sullivan Dwight; William Henry Fry; George Frederick Bristow; John Knowles Paine; Horatio William Parker; Hector Berlioz; Camille Saint-Saens; Cesar Franck; Charles Gounod; Jules Massenet; Lorenzo Perosi; Pater Hartmann Paul Eugen Josef von An der Lan-Hochbrunn; Arnold Schoenberg; Paul Hindemith; Hans Werner Henze; Igor Stravinsky; Arthur Honegger; Frank Martin; Olivier Messiaen; Ralph Vaughan Williams; William Walton; Michael Tippett

A History of the Oratorio Vol 4 The Oratorio in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Howard E Smither 9780807825112 Books Reviews

It's a very good history of the Oratorio
This is so good to me.
Because, About Oratorio is so very hard to me. and so difficult to understand oratorio history.
In 19 Century, the history is kind of war history. Most of things sleep out to old fashion.
There are many accident in this Century. Anyway Thank you for existence this book and Howard E. Smither.
Great, with this book I now have them ALL!! They're all in BRAND NEW condition and without mentioning company names I bought the whole collection from different bookstores & websites. This should make for a very technically jarring read, I'll see if I can get through it. Everything was PERFECT about the sale & with the Seller, thanks to & the others that will go unnamed.
Although Howard Smither confronts the problems of historiography in the introduction to his Volume 4 history of the oratorio, he does not meet them head on. As such, this well-researched volume fails to achieve the much-elusive need for a comprehensive history of the 19th century choral phenomenon.

The choral festival became a unique phenomenon in the 19th century, and this was especially the case in Germany, yet the extent and scale of these large social events is only hinted at in Smither's history. Instead, he focuses on works that are identified as "oratorios." This may define the genre in continuity with his first three (excellent) volumes. Unfortunately, in the nineteenth century, the oratorio took an abrupt turn, and Smither, by adopting a rigid definition, fails to . In this work, he needed to draw on some of the insights of sociology and "new musicology." His analysis is in many ways conservative, but it fails to convey what exactly the oratorio *was.*

This is to say, as much as I appreciate Smither's discussion of Liszt's "Legend of St. Elizabeth," works like Mahler's Symphony of a Thousand get scant treatment, and other works such as the Berlioz Requiem, Dvorak's Stabat Mater and Requiem or Bruckner's great E-flat Mass disappear from the discussion completely. Yet these clearly are part of the genre...and more importantly, part of the genre known to audiences today. They were performed alongside "oratorios" at the very festivals Smither describes. With his (graduate student's) research in the frequency of performance of "oratorios" the reader is therefore left to imagine how frequently those works were performed in comparison to the blown-up genres of huge Requiems and other large choral/orchestral works. The increasing turn to these hybrid genres and away from traditional oratorio librettos is very much part of the history---a part Smither both ignores and misrepresents.

An additional omission is the cultural esteem of composers and music, as well as that of composition. How did writing for the choral festivals affect a composer's reputation and reception in other genres?

Smither also seems unwilling to observe literary and cultural trends, such as the deplorable state of poetry after the Revolutions of 1848 and the domestication of poets between that time period and that of the Grundungzeit of the 1870s. The librettist Otto Roquette (of St. Elizabeth) is completely forgotten today, yet he was immensely popular among composers of now-forgotten lieder. Did Carl Lowe's sixty-page long settings of Roquette's Ballads have something to do with Liszt's approach to his librettist? The decline in oratorio output after 1848 coincides with other musical trends such as the crisis in German symphonic output between Schumann and Brahms. Smither does not even consider this decline and the tremendous social upheavals it reflected. One place I would start would be Arthur Schnitzler's hilarious portrayal of an Austrian choral concert in his short story "Lieutenant Gustl."

I much appreciated his attention on the history of the oratorio in America, but if I was to compare Smither's history with, say, Joseph Horowitz's "Wagner Nights," which covers similar territory, I would have a very very different perception of music history in this not-German yet not British country, yet an equal appreciation of how the music actually goes. Smither's musical analysis often has a feel of "now I'm going to analyze because a music book without analysis will not be taken seriously, so here it is, even though it doesn't help me make a point."

Smither's treatment of the 20th century is perfunctory and incomplete. Stopping at the first world war and devoting space to the numerous omissions of the 19th century would have made for a far better book.