This paper analyzes the soprano arias in three of Franz Joseph Haydn's oratorios, which are Il Ritorno di Tobia, Die Schöpfung, and Die Jahrezeiten. Deborah Thomas analyzes Haydn's oratorio style and attests that development is reflected in the soprano arias.

In this investigation I use the term perception as Arthur Comb and Donald Snygg do when they state that perception is any differentiation the individual is capable of making in his personal field. Perception has to do with the organization one gives to his world. Behavior and learning are products of perceiving. Immanuel Kant said: "We see things not as they are but as we are." During this effort to organize my world I realized that I was concerned with myself as an experiencing individual. I felt that one is built out of his experiences and that the best vantage point for understanding behavior is from the internal frame of reference of the individual himself. I was taking a somewhat phenomenological approach to my problem.