1774 - The Music part 4 - Finishing the year in style

Hob	Title	Players	Notes
21:1	Oratorio: Il Ritorno di Tobia	2 Sop - Alt - Ten – Baß & Chorus, 2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons, 4 Horns, 2 Trumpets, 2 Trombones, Timpani, Strings & Basso Continuo	Composed for the Tonkünstler-Societät in Vienna as a charitable contribution. Text by Giovanni Boccherini.

Tobias saying goodbye to his father
William-Adolphe Bougereau (1860)

It may not seem so today, but in the later part of the 18^th century, and for a long time before and a short time after, oratorios were one of the most highly respected forms of music. In 1776, we will look closely at one of the most famous of Haydn documents, his autobiographical letter addressed to one 'Mademoiselle Leonore', who is a proxy for a sort of Austrian Who's Who which had asked Haydn for some information. Most interesting are the paragraphs beginning thusly:

Inter alia the following compositions of mine have received the most approbation:

The operas

Le Pescatrice,

L'Incontro improviso and

L'Infedeltà delusa, performed in the presence of Her Imperial and Royal Majesty.

The oratorio Il ritorno di Tobia, performed in Vienna

The Stabat Mater, about which I received a testimonial from our great composer Hasse, containing quite undeserved eulogiums. I shall treasure this testimonial all my life, as if it were gold; not for its contents, but for the sake of so admirable a man.

I find it interesting to see this, coming from a man who was already renowned throughout Europe for his symphonies and string quartets. Not a word about them!

Oratorios had been around for over 200 years by the time Haydn wrote his first. As is to be expected, they began in Italy and gradually spread northward, acquiring local characteristics as they went along. So in reading about their history now, we see essentially different genres in France, Germany, England and early and late Vienna. Once the genre achieved recognition as a class of its own, some commonalities arose which were fairly consistent through time, and certainly obtained in the case of Haydn, who was conservative in the vocal music genres. Inside of Italy there were two main divisions; Oratorio Latino and Oratorio Volgare. The main difference between them was in language, the Volgare being in Italian. Outside of Italy, there was no indication of Latino being a factor, so essentially we see Italian as the language of choice within countries such as Austria which had strong ties to Italy.

The main structural features are fairly straightforward; a proper oratorio is always divided into two parts, actually called Parte Prima and Parte Seconda. In practice, they could easily be (and have been on occasion) called Cantata I and Cantata II. That is a not

A fine recording of the 1784 version

unimportant thing to remember since it explains the structure and its formation very simply. Each Part is constructed, as cantatas are, of alternating recitatives and arias (or duets or terzets), often being supported at beginning and end by choral pieces. The reason for the 'intermission' is that since these were performed in church, this was a space for a sermon! Other defining elements are these: the subject matter is always sacred, that is, based on the Bible, and the big difference between oratorio and opera; no acting or anything like it. While this factor entered the genre in later times, it was not the case earlier. Since the music is completely operatic, it was important to keep this distinction between opera and oratorio, or how else justify performance in church?

For Vienna, the oratorio was nothing new. The Habsburgs of the late 17^th and early 18^th centuries were great sponsors of the oratorio, commissioning them for every possible occasion. The first oratorio written in Vienna was actually composed by Emperor Leopold I. His The Sacrifice of Abraham in 1660 began a run which peaked during the reign of Maria Theresia's father, Charles VI, and continued in a much more subdued fashion right up to Haydn's time. Some of the preeminent composers in that period were Cesti and the Ziani's (father and son) in earlier times, Fux and Caldara in the Golden Age, and Bonno and Bononcini in the late period. If you haven't heard of some of these composers, you should note they only wrote oratorios and masses and operas, and despite the fact they were outstanding composers, their music was unknown outside the walls of the Imperial Court. Fux wrote one of the most influential music books ever (it is still being used!) and gained fame for it, in addition to being reputed to be J.S. Bach's favorite composer. He thus becomes the exception which proves the rule.

But in 1771, a group of musical patrons and musicians founded a benevolent society intended to provide some sort of security to musicians in their old age, or to their heirs and dependents should they die young. This Tonkünstler-Societät (Musicians' Society) raised money by sponsoring annual concerts, which reached tremendous size due to the contribution of time and music by its members. The famous letter by Mozart to his father about the great number of players who performed his symphony so nicely was about one of these concerts, to which Mozart, like Haydn, contributed generously. But the relevant contribution of the Society is that they reinstituted the oratorio into the Viennese public music scene, a happy fact which would continue at least up to the 20^th century. And so we come to 1775, when the Tonkünstler-Societät concert featured an oratorio composed and contributed by none other than Joseph Haydn.

The story of our oratorio comes from a book in the so-called Apocrypha, the Book of Tobit. Long thought to have been unrepresented in the Jewish writings, thus late to the game and missing out on inclusion in the Bible proper, large fragments were found as parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls, thus proving the more ancient lineage. Nonetheless, it was accepted by Rome and parts of it, dealing with subjects like filial piety, sacredness of marriage, prayer and fasting were frequently read during mass services, and thus were familiar to the audience in 1775 Vienna.

If you haven't read the link to the story, I can sum it up shortly: Tobit, a grandson of the famous Deborah, returns home from exile.  He has been blinded, and this has made a difficult relationship with his wife. Meanwhile, in faraway Media, a young woman named Sarah had prayed for death in despair. She had lost seven husbands to the demon of lust, Asmodeus, 'the worst of demons', who abducted and killed every man she married, on their wedding night before the marriage could be consummated. So, God sent the Archangel Raphael, disguised as a human, to heal Tobit and to free Sarah from the demon.

Tobit's son, Tobias, undertakes to travel to Media to collect a sum of money owed to Tobit. The tale of his journey and return is the main stuff of the book and also of the oratorio. Of course, it goes without saying, he and Raphael arrive in Media, slay the demon, collect the money (and Sarah, of course), and eventually return to Ninevah to cure Tobit's blindness. It's a great story, from such is the stuff of legends derived.

The libretto for this work was provided by Giovanni Boccherini, brother of the composer. He was a poet for the Court Theater in Vienna and an accomplished classic Italian poet. Haydn actually chose the subject and commissioned the libretto, an unusual step and a mark of the high interest he had in the project. The poem is structured to be just, as in the title, the return of Tobias. All of the tales of the journey are told retrospectively, or else the thing would have become like a first version of The Ring!

Haydn asked for, and received, nearly a two month long hiatus from his regular duties in Eszterháza in order to go home to Eisenstadt and work on the oratorio. Thus he left Eszterháza at the end of October and didn't go back until the following season. Given what we know about the speed at which Haydn composed, it gives some idea of the monumental aspect of Il Ritorno di Tobia! I'm going to leave the description of the performances for next year, since they didn't occur until April (they were a resounding success, however). For now, I really hope this little summary will entice you to give this work a listen. The arias are phenomenal, and phenomenally virtuosic as well.

So, that wraps up 1774. An interesting year for music, and a nice prelude for what will be another great year in 1775. I'm looking forward to it, hope you are too!

Thanks for reading!