"Introite portas eius in confessione atria eius in hymnis confitemini illi laudate nomen eius" - Psalmus 99:4
"Go ye into His gates with praise, into His courts with hymns; and give glory to Him. Praise ye His name." - Psalm 99:4
Music has been a hallmark of Oratorian life since its founding by St. Philip Neri in 1575. In fact, the oratorio, a musical work sung in a concert style that usually incorporates scriptural or religious texts (e.g. Handel's Messiah, Mendelssohn's Elijah, among countless others), directly takes its name from the first Oratory in Rome. The oratorio developed from the late Renaissance custom of singing laude, an Italian song form similar to the English carol or hymn. Textually rich and melodically accessible, laude were usually sung congregationally as a form of prayer. Yet, as the popularity of the custom grew, the desire for increasingly dramatic and complex arrangements arose. Composers were inspired to create longer works whose extended and grand arrangements interpreted the theological and emotional elements found in scripture and religious writings.
In the late 19th century, the English Oratories in London and Birmingham greatly contributed to Anglophone Catholic congregational singing. A remarkable number of hymns and careful translations of Latin hymns were published by English Oratorians; "Jesus, My Lord, My God, My All," "See Amid the Winter Snow," "Faith of Our Fathers," "Lead, Kindly Light," among many others. These hymns can now be heard in Catholic churches across the world.
