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oratorio
6 dictionary results for: oratorio
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
or·a·to·ri·o       [awr-uh-tawr-ee-oh, -tohr-, or-] Pronunciation Key
–noun, plural -ri·os.
an extended musical composition with a text more or less dramatic in character and usually based upon a religious theme, for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra, and performed without action, costume, or scenery.

[Origin: 1625–35; < It: small chapel < LL ōrātōrium oratory2; so named from the musical services in the church of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in Rome]
American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
or·a·to·ri·o       (ôr'ə-tôr'ē-ō', -tōr'-, ŏr'-)  Pronunciation Key 
n.   pl. or·a·to·ri·os
A musical composition for voices and orchestra, telling a sacred story without costumes, scenery, or dramatic action.


[Italian, after Oratorio, the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri at Rome, where famous musical services were held in the 16th century.]

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
oratorio 
"long musical composition, usually with a text based on Scripture," 1727 (in Eng. 1644 in native form oratory), from It. oratorio (late 16c.), from Church L. oratorium (see oratory (2)), in ref. to musical services in the church of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in Rome, where old mystery plays were adapted to religious services.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This
oratorio

noun
a musical composition for voices and orchestra based on a religious text [syn: cantata

American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
oratorio

A musical composition for voices and orchestra, telling a religious story.


Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Oratorio

Or`a*to"ri*o\, n. [It., fr. L. oratorius belonging to praying. See Orator, and cf. Oratory.]

1. (Mus.) A more or less dramatic text or poem, founded on some Scripture nerrative, or great divine event, elaborately set to music, in recitative, arias, grand choruses, etc., to be sung with an orchestral accompaniment, but without action, scenery, or costume, although the oratorio grew out of the Mysteries and the Miracle and Passion plays, which were acted.

Note: There are instances of secular and mythological subjects treated in the form of the oratorios, and called oratorios by their composers; as Haydn's "Seasons," Handel's "Semele," etc.

2. Performance or rendering of such a composition.

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