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History of Sacred
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History of Sacred Music Drama

Excerpts from "Some Historical Aspects of Sacred Music Drama"
Gerbrandt, Carl. SACRED MUSIC DRAMA: A Producer's Guide. Prestige Publications, 1993.

Sacred music drama is but one small sibling in the larger family of music drama; and yet, it may very well be, rather than the sibling, the parent of all music drama. Music drama from its earliest known origins has been associated with religious belief. Music, ritual, dance or movement, spectacle, narrative and drama are all ingredients of worship. Combine these elements with man’s need for make-believe and role playing, and we discover a form of communication which expresses facets of the meaning of life.

Throughout history, music drama has provided an important vehicle by which man has been afforded the opportunity of entering the world of make-believe; and in so doing he has gained the experience of the thing or personage being imitated. It is precisely in this experience that we gain a deeper understanding of the mysteries that surround us. When we assume the character of and imitate another’s actions and personality, we begin to establish a relationship that reaches beyond our usual understanding.

Liturgical Music Drama
The historical evolution of the church’s liturgy and development of the Mass is in itself an example of ceremonial music drama. The Mass contains nearly all the ingredients of a music drama with members of the clergy serving as the solo performers and the congregation becoming the responsatory chorus. The varying rituals, the choreographed physical movement, the chanting (music) and the text are all in place to create a drama.

From about the tenth to the late thirteenth century, a form of liturgical music drama occupied an important place in the church’s worship activities. Various personages, at first only members of the clergy, were selected to portray the characters represented in the scripture reading of the service. Thus, a very simple scene was visually dramatized in the midst of the liturgy. The most commonly enacted scenes were taken from the Gospels and centered around seasonal events such as the Marys visiting the tomb of Christ and the activities and characters surrounding the birth of Jesus.

The Mystery Plays
By the fourteenth century, cylces of such scenes known as “Mystery Plays” were being performed which covered the entire range of Biblical history from the Creation to the Last Judgment. With few exceptions, these plays grew into something of an elaborate entertainment with lavish scenery, costumes and large casts.

The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries saw the flourishing of the mystery and miracle plays, direct descendents of the earlier liturgical music dramas. At first, these plays were presented entirely in Latin and within the walls of the church. They became so popular that it was thought necessary to intersperse a vernacular commentary and translation. Within a century, many dramas had been entirely translated into the vernacular. Secular music forms appeared (sound familiar?), performances began to take place outside the confines of the church, and to the horror of some, non-clerical performers assumed important roles. Soon these Biblically-based plays, while purporting to retain doctrinal purpose, made their appeal largely as popular entertainment.

In England, these plays, and particularly the miracle plays, were acted with little or no music, and without costumes and often without any scenery. They were played with ordinary everyday attire and in natural surroundings. Mary and Joseph wore the ordinary dress of English peasants while the Wise Men appeared in courtiers’ attire, no doubt borrowed from their lord’s armoury. It was as though the events represented were contemporary; even appropriate jokes and improvised horse-play did not seem incongruous.

In each era, these religious or sacred music dramas were as intensely real and actual to the players and audience as any other era. They were not something removed, distant or legendary. They were events of living reality and thus part of the lives and experiences of the people. Just so, Mary was a real person, with real events in her life and genuine emotional responses.

What is more natural therefore, than for the Biblical events to be acted and played out in an attempt to bring them closer to the reality of each contemporary age. What is more fitting than for these events to be represented as actual living realities.

It was only when the peoples’ religions, beliefs, and faith (occurring at most only on Sundays) became divorced from life that the miracle plays ceased. The chief enemy of the plays had become, ironically, the church. By around 1525, dramatic representation of Biblical personages and events was anathema to all but the most liberal factions of both Catholicism and the newly-born Protestantism. By 1580, the “Mystery Plays” had alas died out, partly as a result of religious suppression and partly because of a dying faith.

Following the demise of the mystery and miracle plays, very little remained in the way of musico-dramatic treatment of religious subjects. A few music dramas/operas appeared in Italy and Germany in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. With few exceptions, a drought was in progress which lasted over three centuries.

The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw little interest of incorporating religious ideas into dramatic music. Several composers did include Biblically=based moralities and characters in their librettos, but these were treated in much the same manner as any secular subject, e.g., Strauss’ Salome, Rossini’s Moses, Wagner’s Parsifal, Puccini’s Suor Angelica, and Saint-“Saens’ Samson et Dalila. Isolated scenes of a religious nature were occasionally inserted into a secular framework, e.g., the “Ave Maria” in Verdi’s Othello, the church scene in Gounod’s Faust, and the Easter morning church setting in Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana.

The Twentieth Century
This practice has continued into th etwentieth century with religious ideas playing an increasingly important role in secular operas, e.g., the vivd and realistic revival scene in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah, the religious fervor exhibited in Robert Ward’s The Crucible, pitting the power of God against the witches of Salem; and the beautiful prayer of Mary in Douglas Moore’s The Devil and Danuel Webster.

If indeed the demise of the miracle and mystery plays in the sixteenth century was, at least in part, due to a diminishing faith, then the resurgence of interest in sacred music drama in the twentieth century certainly stirs the curiosity. Western Europe and England in particular have been a welcome harbour for this avenue of expression. That the American composers, churches, and church related colleges should now be turning their attention to sacred dramatic works demands inspection and the ultimate questions of “why” and “what is the motivating force?” Perhaps the answers can only be found in succeeding generations whose hindsight will be far less biased, hopefully better enlightened and capable of evaluating the landscape from a broader perspective.