Greek chorus

thumb|Getty Villa – Storage Jar with a chorus of Stilt walkers – inv. VEX.2010.3.65

A Greek chorus () in the context of ancient Greek tragedy, comedy, and satyr plays, is a homogeneous group of performers who comment with a collective voice on the action of the scene in which they appear, or provide necessary insight into action which has taken place offstage. Historically, the chorus consisted of between 12 and 50 players, who variously danced, sang or spoke their lines in unison, and sometimes wore masks. The players used masks to change their emotions while they were performing.

History

A common theory for the origin of the Greek chorus stems from the ancient Greek poet Arion's invention of the tragedy, the stationary chorus, and satyrs' verses. In Aristotle's Poetics, he writes that "[Tragedy] came into being from an improvisatory origin (that is, both tragedy and comedy: the former from the leaders of dithyramb, the other from the leaders of the phallic songs which remain even now a custom in many cities), it was gradually enhanced as poets developed the potential they saw in it."

The role of the chorus fluctuated. For example, Aeschylus foregrounded the dialogue by increasing the number of actors and reducing the role of the chorus in his works. They also played a role in the Athenian polis, with members of a chorus forming life-long bonds as they performed this civic duty.

German poet and philosopher Friedrich Schiller also tried to use the chorus in his tragedy The Bride of Messina. After it was performed in March 1803 at Weimar, the performance was celebrated by students but

denounced by critics. They specifically critiqued his use of the chorus. German poet Schiller Carlyle said that "the chorus retarded the plot, dissipating and diffusing the sympathies."

In 1910, Sir William Ridgeway published The Origin of Tragedy, in which he argued that as Greek tragedy originated from the dithyramb, the tragic genre itself stemmed from Dionysian traditions.

Dramatic function

All of the extant plays of the ancient Greek theatre include a chorus that offered a variety of background and summary information to help the audience follow the performance. They commented on themes, and, as August Wilhelm Schlegel proposed in the early 19th century to subsequent controversy, demonstrated how the audience might react to the drama. According to Schlegel, the Chorus is "the ideal spectator", and conveys to the actual spectator "a lyrical and musical expression of his own emotions, and elevates him to the region of contemplation".

In the Greek tragedy, the chorus makes their first entrance in the parodos, or the song performed by the chorus upon their entrance into the performance. Throughout the tragedy, episodes, where characters and chorus converse, and stasima, where the chorus performs a stasimon (choral ode), at the end of each episode to summarize and contextualize events, are interspersed. In the exodus, or the play's final scene, the chorus performs a song imparting some message or moral before exiting. Paul Woodruff argues that the chorus most often expresses grief simultaneously with the main characters, calling them "grief-leaders".

Some historians argue that the chorus was itself considered to be an actor. Scholar Albert Weiner considers that it is better when a chorus is "integrated into the fabric of the play" and more resembles a unified character. Since Euripides' choruses seem less unified, Sophocles' choruses more often received praise, and Euripides' choruses criticized for having little to do with the plot.

The chorus represents, on stage, the general population of the particular story, in sharp contrast with many of the themes of the ancient Greek plays which tended to be about individual heroes, gods, and goddesses. They were often the same gender as the main character.

In the same play, the chorus is thought to have agency in communicating the themes of the play, making imagistic references to hunger by way of communicating themes of desire, which in Thyestes manifests by way of literal hunger and consumption, but also in the pursuit of revenge. Despite serving as clarifying voices, the greek chorus is not always omniscient; the knowledge they lack sometimes speak to a distance in status between the chorus and a protagonist by way of emphasizing the position of the latter. The chorus thus comes not only to represent the hierarchical positioning of the general Greek society at the time, but their text provides insight into political thoughts and ideals. In reference to Atreus, the text spoken by the chorus oscillates between positive, negative, and neutral connotations; they critique the monarchy, but prescribe necessary points of indifference to the king at hand. Their text can thus be mined into in order to gain insight into the political and societal situations of the time, with particular obedience to the position of the general member of society.

In the surviving tragedies, the choruses represent:

Aeschylus:

Agamemnon – Elders of Argos
The Eumenides – Furies
The Libation Bearers – Enslaved Women
The Persians – Elders of Susa
Prometheus Bound – Oceanids
Seven Against Thebes – Theban Women
The Suppliants – The Danaïdes

Sophocles:

Ajax – Sailors from Salamis
Antigone – Elders of Thebes
Electra – Mycenaean Women
Oedipus at Colonus – Elders of Colonus
Oedipus Rex – Elders of Thebae
Philoctetes – Sailors of Neoptolemus
Women of Trachis – Trachinian Women

Euripides:

Alcestis – Elders of Pherae
Andromache – Phthian Women
The Bacchae – Theban Maenads
Children of Heracles – Elders of Athens
Electra – Argive Women
Hecuba – Enslaved Trojan Women
Helen – Enslaved Greek Women in Egypt
Heracles – Elders of Thebes
Hippolytus – Troezenian Women, Attendants to Hippolytus
Ion – Women in the Service of Creusa
Iphigenia in Aulis – Chalcidian Women
Iphigenia in Tauris – Enslaved Greek Women in Taurica
Medea – Corinthian Women
Orestes – Argive Women
The Phoenician Women – Phoenician Women
Rhesus – Trojan Sentinels
The Suppliants – Mothers and Sons of the Fallen Thebans
The Trojan Women – Trojan Noble Women

Choral structure and size

No record beyond the words of the script has survived to describe what an ancient Greek audience might have seen and heard during a performance of a choral ode, but a study of those words, including etymology and other even more decisive evidence, makes it possible to derive a general idea that a performance of choral ode was a mix of lyric poetry, dancing and singing joined together with drama. According to scholar H. D. F. Kitto: "The Greek verb choreuo, 'I am a member of the chorus', has the sense 'I am dancing'. The word ode means not something recited or declaimed, but 'a song. The large section of the stage where the chorus danced and sang is the 'orchestra' which is translated to mean a 'dancing floor'. Fifteen members were used by Euripides and Sophocles in tragedies. There were twenty-four members in comedies.

In terms of gender, starting from the 8th century BC, there are depictions of female ensembles or female members performing alongside men in mixed choruses. However, these examples disappear by the 5th century. There is not a lot of evidence in Greek literature for female choruses. Much of it is indirect reference, which scholars have then parsed for clues.

For example, Euripides' character Electra complains about her inability to perform in a chorus and festivals. In other examples, poets and playwrights use the term choros to refer to female group performances. Although this usage existed, it was not common. Plato referred to women dancing Corybantic dances with choral language, but contextual evidence indicates to scholars Budelmann and Power that he does not regard it on the same level as traditional Greek choruses. Additionally, both Sophocles and Pausanias refer to the Thyiades as a choros.

Decline in antiquity

Before the introduction of multiple, interacting actors by Aeschylus, the Greek chorus was the main performer in relation to a solitary actor. The importance of the chorus declined after the 5th century BCE, when the chorus began to be separated from the dramatic action. Later dramatists depended on the chorus less than their predecessors. As dialogue and characterization became more important, the chorus made less of an appearance.

Modern choruses

Musical theatre and grand opera sometimes incorporate a singing chorus that serves a similar purpose as the Greek chorus, as noted in Six Plays by Rodgers and Hammerstein: "The singing chorus is used frequently to interpret the mental and emotional reactions of the principal characters, after the manner of a Greek chorus." The idea of the greek chorus as a tactic in musical theatre is significant in winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, A Strange Loop, in which six "Thoughts" follow around the protagonist, Usher, and represent his "perceptions of reality".

During the Italian Renaissance, there was a renewed interest in the theatre of ancient Greece. The Florentine Camerata crafted the first operas out of the intermezzi that acted as comic or musical relief during the dramas of the time. Historian H. C. Montgomery argues that these were based entirely on the Greek chorus.

A Greek chorus is also used in the Woody Allen film Mighty Aphrodite, in which the chorus gives advice to the neurotic main character.

References

External links

The Chorus at TheatreHistory.com