List of oratorios

This is a chronological list of oratorios from the 16th century to the present. Unless otherwise indicated, all dates are those when the work was first performed. In some cases only the date of composition is known. In others, the oratorio has only been heard on a recording.

There is considerable overlap between the oratorio and the cantata, especially during the 19th century. The works listed below are those that have most often been referred to as oratorios.Oxford English Dictionary: "A large-scale, usually narrative musical work for orchestra and voices, typically on a sacred theme and performed with little or no costume, scenery, or action."

16th century Emilio de' Cavalieri – Rappresentatione di Anima, et di Corpo (1600)

17th century

Pietro della Valle – Oratorio della Purificatione (1640, the earliest documented use of the word "oratorio" to describe a musical composition)Howard E. Smither, "Oratorio", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001). Cornelis Thymenszoon Padbrué – De tranen Petri ende Pauli (published 1647, only partial score survives)Grijp, Louis and Jan Bloemendal, Jan (2011). "Vondel's Theatre and Music" , Joost Van Den Vondel (1587–1679): Dutch Playwright in the Golden Age, pp. 150–151. Brill Giacomo CarissimiHoward E. Smither. A History of the Oratorio, Vol. 1 (1977) Jephte (before 16 June 1648)Andrew V. Jones, "Carissimi, Giacomo [Jacomo]", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001).Randel, Don M. (1996). "Carissimi, Giacomo", The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music, p. 136. Harvard University Press Baltazar (mid-17th century) Diluvium universale (mid-17th century) Dives malus (mid-17th century) Ezechias (mid-17th century) Jonas (mid-17th century) Abramo e Isacco (mid-17th century) Job (mid-17th century) Judicium extremum (mid-17th century) Judicium Salomonis (before 1669) Marc-Antoine Charpentier Judith sive liberata H.391 (mid 1670s) Canticum pro pace H.392 (mid 1670s) Canticum in nativitatem Domini H.393 (mid 1670s) In honorem Caecilliae, Valeriani et Tiburij canticum H.394 (mid 1670s) Pour la fête de l'Epiphanie H.395 (mid 1670s) Historia Esther H.396 (mid 1670s) Cacillia virgo et martyr Octobre vocibus H.397 (mid 1670s) Pestis Mediolanensis H.398 (mid 1670s) Prélude pour Horrenda pastis H.398 a (1679) Filius prodigus H.399 (1680) Prélude pour l'enfant prodigue H.399 a (1681–82) L'enfant prodigue H/399 b (date unknown) L'enfant prodigue H.399 c (date unknown) Canticum in honorem Beatae Virginis Mariae... H.400 (1680) Extremum Dei judicium H.401 (early 1680s) Sacrificium Abrahae H.402 Symphonies ajustées au sacrifice d'Abraham H.402 a (date unknown) Le sacrifice d'Abraham H.402 b (date unknown) Mors Saülis et Jonathae H.403 (early 1680s) Josue prélude H.404 a (1679) Josue H.404 (early 1680s) In resurrectione Domini Nostri Jesu Christi H.405 (1681–82) In circumcisione Domini / Dialogus inter angelum et pastores H.406 (1682–83) Dialogus inter esurientem, sitientem et Christum H.407 (1682–83) Elévation H.408 (1683) In obitum augustissimae nec non piissime Gallorum regina lamentum H.409 (1683) Praelium Michaelis Archangeli factum in cocho cum dracone H.410 (1683) Caedes sanctorum innocentium H.411 (1683–85) Nuptiae sacrae H.412 (1683–85) Caecilia virgo et martyr H.413 (1683–85) In nativitatem Domini Nostri Jesu Christi canticum H.414 (1683–85) Caecilia virgo et martyr H.415 (1686) Prologue de la Ste Cécile après l'ouverture : Harmonia coelistis H.415 a (1686–87) In nativitatem Domini canticum H.416 (late 1680s) Dialogus inter Christum et homines H.417 (early 1690s) In honorem Sancti Ludovici regis Galliae H.418 (early 1690s) Pour Saint Augustin mourant H.419 (late 1690s) Dialogus inter angelos et pastores Judae in nativitatem Domini H.420 (late 1690s) In nativitatem Domini Nostri Jesu Christi canticum H.421 (1698–99) Judicium Salomonis H.422 & H.422 a (1702) Dialogus inter Magdalena et Jesu 2 vocibus Canto e Alto cum organo H.423 (date unknown) Le reniement de St Pierre H.424 (date unknown) Dialogus inter Christum et peccatores H.425 & H.425 a date unknown) Louis-Nicolas Clérambault – L'histoire de la femme adultère (1699 ?) C.191 Sébastien de Brossard – Dialogus poenitentis animae cum Deo (1699 ?) SdB.55

18th century

Antonio Maria Bononcini – Il trionfo della grazia (Vienna 1707) George Frideric Handel – Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (1707) George Frideric Handel – La resurrezione (1708) Francesco Maria Veracini – Il trionfo della innocenza da S Niccolò (?1712) Sébastien de Brossard – Oratorio sopra l'immaculata conceptione della B Virgine (1702–1713) SdB.56 George Frideric Handel – Brockes Passion (1715) Francesco Maria Veracini – Mosè al mar rosso, ovvero Il naufragio di Faraone (?1715; revised as La liberazione del popolo ebreo nel naufragio di Faraone, 1723) Antonio Vivaldi – Juditha triumphans (1716) Francesco Maria Veracini – L'incoronazione di Davidde (1717) Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel – Ein Lämmlein geht und trägt die Schuld, Passion Oratorio (1720) Francesco Maria Veracini – La caduta del savio nell'idoltria di Salomone (1720) Jan Dismas Zelenka – Sub olea pacis et palma virtutis (1723) Johann Sebastian Bach – St John Passion (1724) Francesco Bartolomeo Conti – David (1724) Johann David Heinichen – L'aride tempie ignude, passion oratorio (1724?) Francesco Maria Veracini – L'empietà distrutta nella caduta di Gerico (1724) Johann Sebastian Bach – Easter Oratorio (1725) Johann Sebastian Bach – St Matthew Passion (1727) Johann David Heinichen – Come? S'imbruna il cieli Occhi piangete (1728), passion oratorio (1724?) Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel – Christmas Oratorio (1728) Jan Dismas Zelenka – Il Serpente di Bronzo (1730) Willem de Fesch – Judith (1732) Maurice Greene – The Song of Deborah and Barak (1732)Zöllner, Eva. 'Handel and English oratorio ' in The Cambridge History of Eighteenth Century Music (2011) George Frideric Handel – Esther (1732) George Frideric Handel – Athalia (1733) George Frideric Handel – Deborah (1733) Johann Sebastian Bach – Christmas Oratorio (1734) Johann Adolph Hasse – Il cantico de' tre fanciulli (1734) Nicola Porpora – Davide e Bersabea (London, 1734) Johann Sebastian Bach – Ascension Oratorio (1735) Johann Georg Reutter – Gioas re di Giuda (1735) William Boyce – David's Lamentation over Saul and Jonathan (1736)Bartlett, Ian. 'Boyce and the Early English Oratorio '. in The Musical Times, Vol. 120, No. 1634 (April 1979), pp. 293–297 George Frideric Handel – Alexander's Feast (1736) Jan Dismas Zelenka – I penitenti al sepolcro del redentore (1736) Maurice Greene – Jephtha (1737) George Frideric Handel – Il trionfo del Tempo e della Verità (1737) Johann Adolph Hasse – Le virtù appiè della croce (1737) Nicola Porpora – Il Gedeone (Vienna, 1737)recorded in 1999 on CPO 999 615-2 George Frideric Handel – Israel in Egypt (1738) George Frideric Handel – Saul (1739) Giuseppe Bonno – Eleazaro (1739) Gregor Joseph Werner – Der Gute Hirt (1739) Giuseppe Bonno – San Paolo in Athene (1740) George Frideric Handel – L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato (1740) Johann Adolph Hasse – Serpentes ignei in deserto (1740) John Christopher Smith – David's Lamentation over Saul and Jonathan (Hickman's Rooms, 1740) George Frideric Handel – Messiah (1741) George Frideric Handel – Samson (1741) Johann Adolph Hasse – Giuseppe riconosciuto (1741) Johann Adolph Hasse – I pellegrini al sepolcro di Nostro Signore (1742) George Frideric Handel – Joseph and his Brethren (1743) George Frideric Handel – Semele (1743) Thomas Arne – The Death of Abel (1744, lost except for 'Hymn of Eve') Thomas Arne – Judith (1744) Maurice Greene – The Force of Truth (1744) George Frideric Handel – Hercules (1744) Johann Adolph Hasse – Ci'l un parantê und parsol scelopgrini (1744) Francesco Maria Veracini – L'errore di Salomone (1744) Thomas Arne – Alfred (1745, oratorio version, later an opera) George Frideric Handel – Belshazzar (1745) Johann Adolph Hasse – La Caduta di Gerico (1745) Willem de Fesch – Joseph (1746) George Frideric Handel – Judas Maccabaeus (1746) George Frideric Handel – Occasional Oratorio (1746) George Frideric Handel – Joshua (1747) Johann Adolph Hasse – Santa Elena al Calvario (1747) George Frideric Handel – Alexander Balus (1748) George Frideric Handel – Solomon (1748) George Frideric Handel – Susanna (1748) Nicola Porpora – Il Verbo in carne (Dresden, 1748) Franz Xaver Richter – La Deposizione della Croce (1748) George Frideric Handel – Theodora (1749) George Frideric Handel – The Choice of Hercules (1750) William Hayes – The Fall of Jericho (c. 1740–50) William Hayes – The Passions. An Ode for Music ('dramatic oratorio', 1750) Jean-Joseph de Mondonville – Coeli enarrant gloria (1750) Johann Adolph Hasse – La conversione di Sant' Agostino (1750) George Frideric Handel – Jephtha (1752) Carl Heinrich Graun – Der Tod Jesu (1755) George Frideric Handel – The Triumph of Time and Truth (1757) John Stanley – Jephthah (1757) Johann Adolph Hasse – S. Petrus et S. Maria Magdalena (1759) Giuseppe Bonno – Isacco figura del redentore (1759) John Christopher Smith – Paradise Lost (1760) John Stanley – Zimiri (1760) Gregor Joseph Werner – Deborah (1760) Thomas Arne – Judith (1761) John Christopher Smith – Rebecca (1761, reworking of music by Handel) John Stanley – Arcadia (1762) Georg Philipp Telemann – Der Tag des Gerichts (1762) Johann Georg Albrechtsberger – La passione di Gesù Cristo (1762) George Frideric Handel – Nabal (1764) John Christopher Smith – Tobit (1764, reworking of music by Handel) John Worgan and Christopher Smart – Hannah (1764) Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf – Isacco figura del Redentore (1766) John Worgan – Manasseh (1766), performed at the Lock HospitalHistorical Dictionary of English Music ca. 1400–1958 ed. by Charles Edward McGuire, Steven E. Plank (2012), p. 223 Tommaso Traetta – Rex Salomon (1766, rev. 1776) Recorded on CPO 555 654-2 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots (1767, only the first part) Francesco Maria Veracini – L'Assalone, ovvero L'infedelta punita (before 1768) Samuel Arnold – Cure of Saul (1767) Samuel Arnold – Abimelech (1768)S D Long and J Sawyer: The Bible in Music (2017), p.5 Michael Haydn – Der Kampf der Busse und Bekehrung (1768) Michael Haydn – Kaiser Constanstin I. Feldzug und Sieg (1769) George Frideric Handel – Gideon (1769) Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach – Die Israeliten in der Wüste (1769) Josef Mysliveček - Tobia (1769) Franz Joseph Aumann – Oratorium De Passione Domini Nostri Jesu Christi (c.1770) Johann Christian Bach – Gioas, re di Giuda (London, 1770) Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf – Davide penitente (1770) Michael Haydn – Der reumütige Petrus (1770) Michael Haydn – Der büssende Sünder (1771) Josef Mysliveček – Adamo ed Eva (1771) Florian Leopold Gassmann – La Betulia Liberata (1772) Samuel Arnold – The Prodigal Son (1773) Luffman Atterbury – Goliah (5 May 1773, Haymarket Theatre, London) Josef Mysliveček - La passione di Gesù Cristo (1773) Charles Avison (in collaboration with Felice Giardini) – Ruth (1773) Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach – Die Auferweckung des Lazarus (1773) Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf – La Liberatrice del Popolo Giudaico nella Persia, o sia l'Esther (1773) Samuel Arnold – Omnipotence (1774) Giuseppe Bonno – Il Giuseppe riconosciuto (1774) John Stanley – The Fall of Egypt (1774) Joseph Haydn – Il ritorno di Tobia (1775) James Hook – The Ascension, (Covent Garden, 20 March 1776) Josef Mysliveček - Isacco, figura del redentore (1776) Antonio Salieri – La passione di Gesù Cristo (1776) Joseph Martin Kraus – Der Tod Jesu (1776) John Abraham Fisher – Providence (Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, 2 July 1777) William Hayes – David (first two acts completed, the rest finished by his son Philip (1777) Thomas Linley the younger – The Song of Moses (1777)