The Passion Oratorios of Alessandro Scarlatti: a study in Music and Devotion

Mahar, Sophie Victoria (2023) The Passion Oratorios of Alessandro Scarlatti: a study in Music and Devotion. Doctoral thesis, Liverpool Hope University.

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Abstract

The oratorio is a highly flexible genre that functioned on a host of different levels in early modern Italy. Many oratorios of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries presented a blend of devotional and non-devotional influences, taking literary inspiration not only from biblical passages but also from liturgical texts, and musical inspiration from genres such as opera and serenata.

With this in mind, the focus of this research is on the Passion oratorios of Alessandro Scarlatti, an understudied composer with only a fraction of his music published in modern editions. His oratorios represent the multi-disciplinary and multi-faceted nature of the genre, as demonstrated in this dissertation through close examination and analysis of the music, libretti and performance history of Scarlatti’s Oratorio per la Passione di nostro Signore Gesù Cristo (1706), and Il dolore di Maria Vergine (1717), alongside a completetranscription of the former.

Multiple performances of the Oratorio per la Passione in the early years of the eighteenth century demonstrate a hybrid of sacred and secular elements. The manner in which liturgical references are woven into the poetry, musically interpreted by Scarlatti and performed on a dark stage illuminated only by candlelight created an immersive experience for the listener, incorporating devotional and theatrical elements and igniting divine and emotional affections. Il dolore di Maria Vergine unites biblical references, operatic tendencies and theatrical devices to produce an oratorio that is filled with moments of dramatic musical theatre as well as moments of prayerful devotion.

I hope that this research will awaken interest in long-neglected works, and encourage others to look at the oratorio from a different perspective, acknowledging the complexities and highly unusual functionalities of an under-studied genre.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Additional Information and Comments:	Copyright © The Author 2023. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request.
Faculty / Department:	Faculty of Creative Arts & Humanities > School of Creative and Performing Arts
Depositing User:	Matthew Adams
Date Deposited:	04 Dec 2023 14:21
Last Modified:	06 Dec 2023 11:49
URI:	https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/4089

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