Oratorio

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

a kind of musical drama, consisting of airs, recitations, duets, trios, choruses, etc. The text is usually derived from some Scriptural subject; as, for instance, that of the "Messiah," of the "Creation," and of "Elijah." The origin of the oratorio is somewhat obscure. The most probable account is that which attributes its intention to St. Philip Neri, who, in 1548, organized, at the new chapel at Rome, certain musical performances, consisting of poems on sacred subjects, sung by first-rate sing- , ers accompanied by the best instrumentalists, for the purpose of attracting large in, summer. It congregations. It was entirely successand favor- ful, and these performances, which at constitutions. Agri- first were only poems in four parts, are the chief were, in less than half a century after hides exports, and. ostrich the death of Neri, in 1595, developed into Dia- those splendid compositions called by moderns oratorios. Italy, though the birthplace of the oratorio, has produced very few of any note. The Germans, on the contrary, excel in this species of composition; as a proof of this, it is only necessary to mention the names of Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, Mozart, and, greatest of all Handel. house or building designed for domestic worship. It differs from a chapel inasmuch as it contains no altar, nor may mass be performed in it. aminifers, found alive in tropical seas, as also fossil in the Tertiaries. They have their name from their flattened globular shape. in which the eye is situated. In astronomy, the path of a primary planet in its revolution round the sun, or a secondary one in its revolution round the primary. In ornithology, the skin which surrounds the eye of a bird. the culture of fruit trees, especially the apple, the pear, the plum, the peach, and the cherry. The most suitable position for an orchard is a declivity lying well exposed to the sun and sheltered from the colder winds. Fruit cultivation is carried on most extensively on the continent of Europe and the United States. The chief fruit-growing States are New York, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, Indiana, California and Oregon. LER, an English genre painter; born in Edinburgh, in 1835, where subsequently he studied under Scott Lauder at the Trustees' Academy; became A. R.A. in 1868, R. A. in 1877, and received a Medal of Honor at the Paris Exposition, in 1878. Best known popular pictures are ( 1865), " The Duke's ( 1869). " Casus Belli Protector " ( 1871), ( 1875), " The Queen ( 1877), " A Social Hit" (1879), "On Board H. M. S. 'Bellerophon,' n, July, 23, 1815" (1880; bought by the Chantrey Bequest). "Marriage de Convenance" (1884), "After" (1886) "The Salon of Madame Récamier" (1885), "The First Cloud" (1887), and "The Young Duke" (1889). He died April 13, 1910. of Roccella, a genus of lichens, originally brought from very early times as a dye agent. Large quantities are gathered in in maritime rocks of the Canary and Cape Verde Islands. A purple and a red dye, from them. Greek and Roman theaters, the semicircular area, included by the straight