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George Frederick Handel is one of the most important composers of oratorio in musical history. Between the year 1704, when he composed his Passion According to Saint John, and 1757, the year of his last oratorio, The Triumph of Time and Truth, Handel composed twenty nine works which have at one time or another been classified as oratorios. Only those works that are considered by all authorities as oratorios and are based on the Old Testament or Jewish history are included in this study. Handel writes solo roles for the tenor voice in all of the sixteen oratorios included in the study with the exception of the revision of Esther and in Deborah. The musical and dramatic function of the tenor solo roles varies with each oratorio. The significance of the tenor roles fluctuates with the dramatic impact of the story related by the oratorio and is completely dictated by it. Handel used all solo voices with concern for the best over all theatrical effect foremost in mind. To place in proper perspective his use of the tenor voice in relation to the other solo voices, such factors as the musical and dramatic importance of the tenor roles, character types portrayed, and the style and ranges of arias, should be considered.

It is the purpose of this thesis to determine the comparative differences and similarities of the accompanied violin sonatas of the two contemporary eighteenth-century composers, Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frederick Handel.