Chorus was originally an ancient Greek term for a troop of singers and dancers, intended to heighten the pomp and solemnity of festivals. During the most flourishing period of ancient tragedy the Greek chorus was a troop of males and females, who, during the whole representation, were spectators of the action, never quitting the stage. In the intervals of the action the chorus chanted songs, which related to the subject of the performance. Sometimes it even took part in the performance, by observations on the conduct of the personages, by advice, consolation, exhortation, or dissuasion. In the beginning it consisted of a great number of persons, sometimes as many as fifty; but the number was afterwards limited to fifteen. The exhibition of a chorus was in Athens an honourable civil charge, and was called choragy.
Sometimes the chorus was divided into two parts, who sung alternately. The divisions of the chorus were not stationary, but moved from one side of the stage to the other; from which circumstance the names of the portions of verse which they recited, strophe, antistrophe, and epode, are derived.
Now, in music, the chorus is that part of a composite vocal performance which is executed by the whole body of the singers, in contradistinction to the solo airs, and concerted pieces for selected voices. The singers who join in the chorus are also called the chorus. The term is also applied to the verses of a song in which the company join the singer, or the union of a company with a singer in repeating certain couplets or verses at certain periods in a song. Research Chorus
Abbreviations
Music
Research Chorus