Which Of The Following Reduced The Size Of The Chorus To Twelve?

Group of performers who comment on a drama

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

A Greek chorus, or simply chorus (Greek: χορός , translit. chorós ), in the context of ancient Greek tragedy, one-act, satyr plays, and modern works inspired past them, is a homogeneous, non-individualised group of performers, who comment with a collective voice on the dramatic activeness.^[1] The chorus consisted of between 12 and fifty players, who variously danced, sang or spoke their lines in unison, and sometimes wore masks.

Etymology [edit]

Historian H. D. F. Kitto argues that the term chorus gives us hints about its function in the plays of aboriginal Greece: "The Greek verb choreuo, 'I am a member of the chorus', has the sense 'I am dancing'. The word ode ways not something recited or declaimed, simply 'a song'. The 'orchestra', in which a chorus had its being, is literally a 'dancing floor'."^[2] From this, information technology can be inferred that the chorus danced and sang poetry.

Dramatic function [edit]

Plays of the aboriginal Greek theatre always included a chorus that offered a variety of background and summary information to help the audition 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.^[3] According to Schlegel, the Chorus is "the ideal spectator", and conveys to the actual spectator "a lyrical and musical expression of his ain emotions, and elevates him to the region of contemplation".^[4] In many of these plays, the chorus expressed to the audition what the main characters could non say, such as their hidden fears or secrets. The chorus often provided other characters with the insight they needed.^{[ citation needed ]}

Some historians fence that the chorus was itself considered to be an actor.^[five] Scholars have considered Sophocles to exist superior to Euripides in his choral writing. Of the two, Sophocles also won more dramatic contests. His chorus passages were more relevant to the plot and more than integrated in tragedies, whereas the Euripidean choruses seemingly had little to do with the plot and were frequently bystanders.^[6] Aristotle stated in his Poetics:

The chorus as well should be regarded as one of the actors; information technology should exist an integral function of the whole, and share in the activity, not in the manner of Euripides only of Sophocles.^[7]

The chorus represents, on stage, the general population of the item story, in precipitous contrast with many of the themes of the ancient Greek plays which tended to be well-nigh individual heroes, gods, and goddesses. They were often the same sexual activity every bit the main character.^[five] In Aeschylus' Agamemnon, the chorus comprises the elderly men of Argos, whereas in Euripides' The Bacchae, they are a grouping of eastern bacchantes, and in Sophocles' Electra, the chorus represents the women of Argos. In Aeschylus' The Eumenides, however, the chorus takes the part of a host of avenging Furies.

In the surviving tragedies, the choruses represent:

Choral structure and size [edit]

The lines of choral odes provide show that they were sung. Normal syllabic structure has long sounds that are twice the length of short sounds. However, some lyrics in Greek odes have long syllables that are equal to 3, 4 and 5 shorter syllables. Spoken words cannot do that, suggesting that this was a danced and sung rhythm.^[2]

The chorus originally consisted of fifty members, but some later playwrights inverse the size. Aeschylus likely lowered the number to twelve, and Sophocles raised it again to 15.^[6] Xv members were used by Euripides and Sophocles in tragedies.^[8] The chorus stood in the orchestra.^[six] There were xx-four members in comedies.^[9]

Stage direction [edit]

The chorus performed using several techniques, including singing, dancing, narrating, and acting.^[9] There is bear witness that there were stiff rhythmic components to their speaking.^[two]

They often communicated in vocal form, only sometimes spoke their lines in unison. The chorus had to piece of work in unison to help explicate the play equally at that place were just i to three actors on phase who were already playing several parts each. As the Greek theatres were so large, the chorus' deportment had to be exaggerated and their voices clear then that everyone could run across and hear them. To exercise this, they used techniques such as synchronization, echo, ripple, physical theatre and the utilize of masks to aid them. A Greek chorus was often led by a coryphaeus. They as well served as the aboriginal equivalent for a pall, every bit their parodos (inbound procession) signified the beginnings of a play and their exodos (go out procession) served as the curtains closing.^{[ citation needed ]}

Decline in antiquity [edit]

Before the introduction of multiple, interacting actors past Aeschylus, the Greek chorus was the main performer in relation to a lone actor.^[ten] ^[11] The importance of the chorus declined afterward the 5th century BCE, when the chorus began to be separated from the dramatic activity. Later dramatists depended on the chorus less than their predecessors. Every bit dialogue and characterization became more important, the chorus made less of an appearance.^[5] However, historian Alan Hughes argues that at that place was no such thing as decline, but rather the slow dissolution of i grade into some other:

At their best, they may have become functioning art, blending music, lyrics, and dance, performed by polished choreutai and accompanied by distinguished musicians. That is neither improvement nor decline: it is simply alter.^[12]

Modern choruses [edit]

Musical theatre and grand opera sometimes comprise a singing chorus that serves a like purpose every bit 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 way of a Greek chorus."^[13]

During the Italian Renaissance, at that place was a renewed interest in the theatre of ancient Greece. The Florentine Camerata crafted the kickoff operas out of the intermezzi that acted as comic or musical relief during the dramas of the fourth dimension. These were based entirely on the Greek chorus, equally historian H.C. Montgomery argues.^[v]

Richard Wagner discussed Greek drama and the Greek chorus extensively in his writings, including "Fine art and Revolution".^{[ citation needed ]} His longest work, Der Band des Nibelungen, (The Ring of the Nibelung) is based in the style of Oresteia with parallels in rhythm and overall structure (both take three parts, with the exception of Das Rheingold, the prelude to The Ring of the Nibelung).^[v] Wagner said of himself, "History gave me a model also for that ideal relation of the theater to the public which I had in heed. I constitute information technology in the drama of Ancient Athens".^{[ commendation needed ]} A Greek chorus is likewise used in the Woody Allen motion picture Mighty Aphrodite, in which the chorus gives advice to the neurotic main character.^[14]

Run across also [edit]

Chorus of the elderly in classical Greek drama

References [edit]

^ Pavis (1998, p. 53)
^ ^a ^b ^c Kitto, H.D.F. (March 1956). "The Greek Chorus". Educational Theatre Journal. 8 (1): 1–8. doi:ten.2307/3203909. JSTOR 3203909.
^ Schlegel, August Wilhelm. 1846. Vorlesungen über dramatische Kunst und Literatur one. translated past John Black under the championship Class of Lectures on Dramatic Art and Litereature (London, 1846; reprint, New York, 1973), 76–77.
^ Schlegel, Baronial Wilhelm (1846). A Course of Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature. AMS. p. 70.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Montgomery, H.C. (December 1942). "Some Later Uses of the Greek Tragic Chorus". The Classical Journal. 38 (3): 148–160.
^ ^a ^b ^c Weiner, Albert (May 1980). "The Function of the Tragic Greek Chorus". Theatre Periodical. 32 (ii): 205–212. doi:10.2307/3207113. JSTOR 3207113. S2CID 192120937.
^ Aristotle, Poetics, chapter eighteen
^ Wilson, Edwin and Alvin Goldfarb (1999) Theater, The Lively Art, McGraw-Loma, New York ISBN 0-07-240718-2
^ ^a ^b Brockett and Hildy (2003, pp. 22–23), Pavis (1998, p. 53), Rehm (1992, p. 26)
^ Haigh, 1898, p. 319
^ Kitto, 2002, pp. 22, 27
^ Hughes, Alan (2012). Performing Greek Comedy. New York: Cambridge University Printing. ISBN9781107009301.
^ Rodgers and Hammerstein. Six Plays by Rodgers and Hammerstein, p. 185
^ Garland, Robert (2008). Aboriginal Greece: Everyday Life in the Birthplace of Western Civilization. New York Metropolis, New York: Sterling. p. 324. ISBN978-1-4549-0908-8.

External links [edit]

Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Chorus". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Printing.
The Chorus at TheatreHistory.com