The large-scale
musical composition for
solo voices,
chorus, and
orchestra using a sacred or semisacred text is known as an oratorio.
The word oratorio comes from the oratory of a church in Rome where St. Philip Neri instituted musical entertainments in the mid-16th century for the reform of the youth of the city. The principal types of oratorio are the Italian, the German and the English, all three types reached their climax in the works of Johann Sebastian Bach in Germany and George Frideric Handel in England.