PROFESSOR (British, Female): To us, a choir is a group of people singing
together at a church, or a school, or…or at some kind of formal musical
performance. If we go to a choir performance, we are there solely to appreciate
the group’s vocal talents. But interestingly, the Greek roots of the word point
to an all-together different concept.
The origins of the choir go back to antiquity with the Ancient Greek koros. Uh, chorus is the modern English spelling. The earliest known chorus
dates back to the 2nd century BC Delphic hymns. Somewhat similar to
contemporary choirs, a chorus was a group of performers whose talent was
singing. But their function was very different than what we see today. The
Greek chorus was part of Ancient Greek theatre, and the chorus’s job was to
comment on the play being performed. So, the chorus would comment on the
action, but, um, but also on what the characters were feeling or thinking. This
was done by giving the audience background information and summaries during the
performance. You know, giving them insight into why a character would be making
certain decisions or acting in a certain way.
Another sort of distinctive characteristic of the Greek chorus was how
much unity was emphasised. The chorus was supposed to be a homogeneous, unified
organism with no one person standing out, even though there would be between,
oh, 12 and 50 chorus members. Uh, to prevent individualisation of the chorus
members, each of them wore identical masks. They also spoke in unison. This
helped the audience to identify the chorus as a distinguishable actor in the
play.
But why was all of this necessary? Why couldn’t the actual actors convey
all of this information? Well, you have to know a bit about Ancient Greek
theatre to understand the necessity of the chorus. Um, back then, there would
only be two or three actors in a play, each would play several different roles
by changing masks. As you can guess, this could get confusing for the audience.
So the chorus could help distinguish the characters by singing about them while
they were on stage. And dancing…they did liven up the performances with dancing
as well. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention…before the 5th century
BC, there was only one actor per performance and then the chorus. So the chorus
had a more central role prior to the introduction of several actors by the
Greek writer Aeschylus in about 500 BC.
Right. Back to the, uh, question of why the chorus had to fill in so
many blanks… Aside from the small number of actors, there was also the fact
that the actors all wore masks. When someone is wearing a mask, you can’t see
their facial expressions, which is how we know what someone is feeling. That’s
why the insights provided by the chorus were so important for the audience to
emotionally connect with the play.
But sometime after 5th century BC, there was a shift in
Ancient Greek theatre. The chorus was more often being separated from the
dramatic action, and the actors started to take on more prominent roles. Still,
archaeological excavations have unearthed evidence of the Ancient Greek chorus
even as late as the 2nd century AD, suggesting that the traditional
chorus’s place in Greek theatre remained intact.