Oratorio credited with writing the first English language oratorio, "Esther". Handel's imitators included the Italian Lidarti who was employed by the Amsterdam Jewish community to compose a Hebrew version of "Esther". Britain continued to look to Germany for its composers of oratorio. The Birmingham Festival commissioned various oratorios including Felix Mendelssohn's "Elijah" in 1846, later performed in German as "Elias". German composer Georg Vierling is noted for modernizing the secular oratorio form. John Stainer's "The Crucifixion" (1887) became the stereotypical battlehorse of massed amateur choral societies. Edward Elgar tried to revive the genre around the turn of century with the composition
Paul Keenan (composer) Television. A select group of academics, composers and performers believe Keenan's music to be a unique and significant contribution to music of the late 20th Century. His pioneering approach to electro-acoustic composition and research into sound phenomenon earned him the description as "the man who split music's atom". Paul Keenan (composer) Paul Keenan (1 August 1956 – 26 June 2001) was a British 20th Century contemporary classical composer. His body of composition spans 27 years, though consistently explores his fascination with both Anglo-Saxon texts (from "The Exeter Book") and the natural world. Keenan was born in Birmingham where he attended