'Almost all the greatest composers,' wrote H.R. Haweis in his Music and Morals (1871), 'have found in the sacred cantata or oratorio, a form of art capable of expressing the noblest progressions of the religious sentiment in the highest planes of emotion.' Moreover, 'by arranging the magnificent episodes of Scripture in a dramatic - not operatic form', they had succeeded in generating in their audiences 'new impressions of the depth and sublimity' of Biblical characters.

LRB 23 May 1991 | PDF Download