At the beginning of the sixteenth century the whole Catholic world was influenced by those reforms so necessary to the Christian Church of that time, and so bravely contended for and gained by Luther. The demoralisation which weakened all the church's fabric was deeply deplored by the Catholic clergy, and we find at the close of this century St. Philip Neri founding a congregation of priests in Rome and drawing youths to church by dramatising in simple form such stories as the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, etc., which were set to music in four parts with alternate solos, first by Animuccia (a pupil of Goudimel), and later on by the great Palestrina. These "sacred actions" or plays were not performed in the church itself, but in an adjoining chamber, called in Italian "oratorio," an oratory, and the title has since then adhered to this species of sacred work. Our girls will be pleased to know that the first oratorio, set to music by Emilio del Cavalieri, was written by a lady, Laura Guidiccioni. It was acted for the first time in the year 1600, probably in the oratory of the Church of Santa Maria della Vallicella, in Rome. The name of the work is "The Representation of the Soul and the Body." It was to be played in appropriate costumes, and certain choruses were to be accompanied, in a reverent and sedate manner, by solemn dances. Some of the characters were Time, Pleasure, the World, Human Life, the Body, etc. As the various forms of music, already named as common to the opera and oratorio, developed in the former, so in proportion they expanded and became freer in the latter; those portions which had been mainly founded upon plain song became more expressive and dramatic, and the melody assumed a flowing and cantabile character. But whereas you would imagine that a closer connection between the secular and sacred would be the result of this change, nevertheless, the composer's conviction that the music must strive to be of adequate importance to the sacred words and subjects caused a line to be drawn, ever growing more and more marked, as time and growth in grace and knowledge went on, between the secular and sacred musical drama. In the seventeenth century we find Carissimi greatly advancing oratorio, and composing really noble music. You may remember a revival of his "Jephtha," by Mr. Henry Leslie, a few years back. Scarlatti, Stradella, and others also contributed to this period. But, notwithstanding its Italian birth and infancy, it remained for Germany to bring oratorio to a vigorous manhood, and to its lofty position in the world of music. The compositions of Handel and Bach, early in the eighteenth century, placed this sacred art form upon a pinnacle of such height and strength, that few composers have the stamina or knowledge wherewith to reach it.