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See also:CHORUS (Gr. xopbs)Z
properly a See also:dance, and especially the sacred dance, accompanied by See also:song, of See also:ancient See also:Greece at the festivals of the gods
.
The word xop6s seems originally to have referred to a dance in an enclosure, and is therefore usually connected with the See also:root appearing in Gr. xbpros, hedge, enclosure, See also:Lat. hortus, See also:garden, and in the Eng
.
" yard," " garden " and " See also:Barth." Of choral dances in ancient Greece other than those in See also:honour of See also:Dionysus we know of the Dance of the See also:Crane at See also:Delos, celebrating the See also:escape of See also:Theseus from the See also:labyrinth, one telling of the struggle of See also:Apollo and the See also:Python at See also:Delphi, and one in See also:Crete recounting the saving of the new-See also:born See also:Zeus by the See also:Curetes
.
In the See also:chorus sung in honour of Dionysus the ancient See also:Greek See also:drama had its See also:birth
.
From that of the See also:winter festival, consisting of the rcwpos or See also:band of revellers, chanting the " phallic songs," with See also:ribald See also:dialogue between the See also:leader and his band, sprang " See also:comedy," while from the dithyrambic chorus of the See also:spring festival came " tragedy." For the See also:history of the chorus in Greek drama, with the See also:gradual subordination of the lyrical to the dramatic See also:side in tragedy and its See also:total disappearance in the See also:middle and new comedy, see DRAMA: Greek Drama
.
The chorus as a See also:factor in drama survived only in the various imitations or revivals ,of the ancient Greek See also:theatre in other See also:languages
.
A chorus is found in See also:Milton's See also:Samson Agonistes
.
The Elizabethan dramatists applied the name to a single See also:character employed for the recitation of prologues or epilogues
.
Apart from the uses of the See also:term in drama, the word " chorus " has been employed chiefly in See also:music
.
It is used of any organized See also:body of singers, in See also:opera, See also:oratorio, See also:cantata, &c., and, in the See also:form " See also:choir," of the trained body of singers of the musical portions of a religious service in a See also:cathedral or See also:
In the See also:early middle ages the name chorus was given to a See also:primitive bagpipe without a See also:drone
.
The See also:instrument is best known by the Latin description contained in the apocryphal See also:letter of St
.
See also:Jerome, ad Dardanum: Chorus quoque simplex, pellis cum duabus cicutis aereis, et per primam inspiratur per secundam
voacem emittit." Several illumihated See also:MSS' from the 9th to the t ith See also:century give fanciful drawings, accompanied by descriptions in barbarous Latin, evidently meant to illustrate those described in the letter to See also:Dardanus
.
The See also:original MS., probably an illustrated transcript of this letter, which served as a copy for the others, was apparently produced at a See also:time when the See also:Roman bagpipe (See also:tibia utricularia) had fallen into disuse in See also:common with other musical See also:instruments, and was unknown except to the few
.
The Latin description given above is correct and quite unmistakable to any one who knows the primitive form of bagpipe; the illustrations must therefore represent theeffortofanartisttodepict an unknown instrument from a description
.
Virdung, Luscinius and See also:Praetorius seem to have had See also:access to a MS. of the Dardanus letter now lost, and to have reproduced the drawings without understanding them
.
In a MS. of the 14th century at the See also:British Museum,2 containing a See also:chronicle of the See also:world's history to the See also:death of See also:
Historians See also:record that King See also: |
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