All Topics  
Greek chorus

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Greek chorus
 
 
  Topics Greek chorus Topic Home

The Greek chorus (choros) is a group of twelve or fifteen minor actors in tragic
Tragedy

Tragedy is a form of The arts based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific Poetic tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of Western culture....
 and twenty-four in comic
Ancient Greek comedy

Comedy was one of two principal dramatic forms in ancient Greece, the other being tragedy. Athenian comedy is conventionally divided into three periods, Old Comedy, Middle Comedy, and New Comedy....
 plays of classical Athens
Classical Athens

The city of Athens during classical antiquity was a notable polis of Attica, Ancient Greece, leading the Delian League in the Peloponnesian War against Sparta and the Peloponnesian League....
.

s of the ancient Greek theatre
Theatre of Ancient Greece

The theatre of ancient Greece, or ancient Greek drama, is a Theatre culture that flourished in Classical Greece between c. 550 and c. 220 BCE....
 always included a chorus that offered a variety of background and summary information to help the audience follow the performance. The Greek chorus comments on themes, and shows how an ideal audience might react to the drama.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Greek chorus'
Start a new discussion about 'Greek chorus'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


The Greek chorus (choros) is a group of twelve or fifteen minor actors in tragic
Tragedy

Tragedy is a form of The arts based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific Poetic tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of Western culture....
 and twenty-four in comic
Ancient Greek comedy

Comedy was one of two principal dramatic forms in ancient Greece, the other being tragedy. Athenian comedy is conventionally divided into three periods, Old Comedy, Middle Comedy, and New Comedy....
 plays of classical Athens
Classical Athens

The city of Athens during classical antiquity was a notable polis of Attica, Ancient Greece, leading the Delian League in the Peloponnesian War against Sparta and the Peloponnesian League....
.

Dramatic function

Plays of the ancient Greek theatre
Theatre of Ancient Greece

The theatre of ancient Greece, or ancient Greek drama, is a Theatre culture that flourished in Classical Greece between c. 550 and c. 220 BCE....
 always included a chorus that offered a variety of background and summary information to help the audience follow the performance. The Greek chorus comments on themes, and shows how an ideal audience might react to the drama. The chorus also represents on stage the general population in any 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.

In many of these plays, the chorus expressed to the audience what the main characters could not say, such as their fears or secrets. The chorus often provided other characters with the insight they need.

Stage management

The Greek chorus usually communicated in song form, but sometimes spoke their lines in unison. The chorus had to work in unison to help explain the play as there were only one to three actors on stage who were already playing several parts each. As the Greek theatres were so large, the chorus' actions had to be exaggerated and their voices clear so that everyone could see and hear them. To do this, they used techniques such as synchronization, echo, ripple, physical theatre and the use of masks to aid them.

Modern plays, especially Broadway
Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 39 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City....
 musicals and grand opera
Opera

Opera is an Performing arts in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work which combines a text and a musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition....
s, sometimes incorporate a contemporary version of the chorus, although they serve a different purpose.

Decline in antiquity

Before the introduction of multiple, interacting actors by Aeschylus
Aeschylus

Aeschylus was an Ancient Greece playwright. He is often recognized as the father or the founder of tragedy, and is the earliest of the three Greek tragedy whose Play survive extant, the others being Sophocles and Euripides....
, 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.

Further reading

  • Calame, Claude; (tr. Derek Collins), , Rowman & Littlefield, 2001. ISBN 0742515257