oratorio (n.)

"long musical composition, usually with a text based on Scripture," 1727 (in English from 1640s in native form oratory), from Italian oratorio (late 16c.), from Church Latin oratorium "a place of prayer, an oratory or chapel," noun use of an adjective, as in oratorium templum, from neuter of Latin oratorius "of or for praying," from ōrare "to pray, plead, speak" (see orator). The purely musical sense stems from the Oratory musical services of prayers and hymns instituted in Rome in the 1550s by St. Philip Neri and performed in the church of Santa Maria in Vallicella.