Choral Arts Philadelphia: Giacomo Carissimi JEPHTE (2) final chorus

Watch part 1:    • Giacomo Carissimi JEPHTE  

Giacomo Carissimi (1605-1674) was an Italian composer, one of the most celebrated masters of the early Baroque or, more accurately, the Roman school of music. He is also noted as one of the first composers of oratorios, with JEPHTE probably the most well known. This work and others are important as definitely establishing the form of oratorio unaccompanied by dramatic action, which maintained its hold for 200 years. Carissimi was active at the time when secular music was about to usurp the dominance of sacred music in Italy; the change was decisive, and permanent. When he began composing the influence of the previous generations of Roman composers was still heavy (for instance the style of Palestrina); and when his career came to a close the operatic forms, as well as the instrumental secular forms, were predominant.

The oratorio is based on the story of Jephtha in the Old Testament Book of Judges. Carissimi's oratorio sets an adaptation of the Latin Vulgate text (Iudicum 11:28-40) of Jephthah's war with Ammon. Jephthah rashly swears that if the Lord helps him to overthrow Ammon, he will offer to the Lord as a sacrifice the first person that greets him when he returns home. He leads Gilead to victory over Ammon, and there is much rejoicing. However, the first person to greet Jephthah home is his only child, a virgin daughter. Jephthah rues his impetuous oath, but must carry it out. He grants his daughter's last request, to go into the mountains and bewail her fate. (In Biblical times, all Hebrew women strove to bear children, in the hopes that one of them might be the Messiah. Thus, Jephthah's daughter will die in shame, because she must die childless.) The daughter sings a moving lament, and the oratorio ends with the chorus echoing this sorrowful lament.