The Representation of Soul and Body

…anima e di corpo (The Representation of the Soul and the Body). Produced in Rome in 1600, this work, unlike true oratorio, used actors and costumes. Carissimi and Alessandro Scarlatti were the chief Italian Baroque composers of oratorio, and Heinrich Schütz, a pupil of both Giovanni Gabrieli and Monteverdi…

…anima e di corpo (Representation of Soul and Body), an allegorical morality play. Important as a precursor of opera and of oratorio, it had characteristics of both. Published in 1600, it contained the earliest printed examples of figured bass. Although it was surpassed in musical and dramatic intensity by…

…anima et di corpo (The Representation of Soul and Body) by Emilio del Cavaliere, produced in 1600 with dramatic action, including ballet. Toward the mid-17th century Giacomo Carissimi introduced a more sober type with a Latin text based on the Old Testament. His oratorios (some short, some longer) are…