Théodore Dubois (b. 1837) has worked much in the field of choral music. Besides many pieces of church-music and five cantatas, he has written three oratorios--‘The Seven Last Words of Christ’ (1867), a short and easy setting of the familiar Passion-scene; ‘Paradise Lost,’ which is given some space below; and _Nôtre-Dame de la Mer_ (1897). ‘Paradise Lost’ (_Le Paradis perdu_), for the composition of which Dubois won the City of Paris prize in 1878, is a dramatic oratorio in four parts. The text, by Édouard Bau, is based on Milton’s great poem. It is a fresh, spontaneous work, and abounds in striking tone-pictures, the most unique of which is the fierce struggle in Part I between the forces of Heaven and of Hell (the faithful and the rebellious angels). The superscription of the orchestral introduction is a commentary on the sombre nature of the music: ‘Before the Creation of our Earth, while Chaos yet reigned ... the host of angels, called from the ends of Heaven, assembled before the throne of the Almighty.’ This prelude is at once followed by the chorus of seraphim and the recitative of the Archangel. The first two parts, ‘The Revolt’ and ‘Hell,’ portray the contest of Satan and his angels against the archangels and the faithful, and the condition of the lost angels in their new abode of torment. The third part, ‘Paradise,’ includes the temptation and the fall of man, and the fourth, ‘The Judgment,’ tells of the upheaval on the earth, the despair of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from Paradise. Among the best portions of the work might be named the opening of Part III, a beautiful picture of a morning in Paradise (ushered in by the orchestra and taken up chorally by the spirits who guard Eden); the simple, devout prayer of Adam and Eve (in duet form); and a grandiose concerted piece, ‘O God, avenging and righteous,’ which is sung by Adam, Eve, the Archangel and the chorus of seraphim. The characterization of Satan is particularly strong throughout the work. Interesting is the French viewpoint, which depicts the chivalrous Adam unwilling to allow the blame for the first sin to rest upon his spouse: ‘Pardon the woman.... I ‘twas who led her astray!’ he pleads before the Archangel who passes sentence upon the guilty pair. Many pages of the music approach closely to the boundaries of sentimentality. V In the field of English oratorio we find the same contributing composers as in the cantata-form of this period and the same progressive spirit and virile qualities that sought out and found individual forms of expression (see Chapter VI). The principal oratorio writers of the period in the United Kingdom are Mackenzie, Parry, Stanford, Sullivan and Cowen.