Chorus is a term in music and drama with several meanings. It is most commonly used as the word for a group of singers who perform together, usually in parts. In this sense, it can be interchanged with the term choir. In operas and stage musicals, the group of singers and dancers who support the principal performers is also called the chorus.
Musical meanings.
Any composition that a chorus sings is called a chorus. Thus, all the parts of an opera, musical, or concert piece assigned to a choir are called choruses. A famous example is the “Hallelujah” chorus in the German composer George Frideric Handel‘s oratorio Messiah (1742). The word chorus also refers to the repeated part, or refrain, of a song. In jazz, each successive repeat of the melody, in the form of improvised variations, is called a chorus.
Loading the player...Hallelujah Chorus
The idea of a chorus as a body of singers performing together dates back to Biblical times. The priests of Israel were sometimes called upon to form a choir of singers and instrumentalists from among their number. Choirs became important from early Christian times, and the place in a cathedral in which they sang during services also became known as the choir. In the Middle Ages, monasteries and abbeys had choirs of men and boys.
Beginning in Renaissance times, most large churches also had their own choirs, and cathedral choir schools emerged to train boys in the art of singing, while also giving them a general education. Groups of singers and instrumentalists performed secular (nonreligious) songs called madrigals and chansons. With the development of opera in Florence, Italy, in the 1590’s, composers tried to look back to the days of ancient Greece by writing passages to be sung by professional choruses. From these beginnings, the opera chorus gradually emerged.
After the Reformation of the 1500’s, which saw the birth of Protestantism, church congregational hymn singing became an important element of worship. Experts believe that the tradition of hymn singing was built upon an earlier tradition of singing folk songs. Such folk singing helped to foster the development of choral singing throughout Europe. In Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States, congregational singing laid the foundation of an amateur choral tradition that thrived from the early 1700’s onward. Choral singing in large choral societies reached a peak in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s and is still popular today. Youth choirs and men’s and ladies’ choirs also continue to perform.
The chorus in drama.
The word chorus is Greek in origin. The Greek chorus developed from choral lyrics, called dithyrambs, performed to honor the god Dionysus. In ancient Greek drama, a chorus was a group of actors who recited or, more probably, sang in verse. The chorus explained the action, asked questions, or expressed opinions to increase the audience’s understanding of the play. The chorus often linked the scenes of the drama and was performed to the accompaniment of musical instruments and with dance movements. In later drama, a single actor performed the function of a spoken chorus and usually provided a prologue as well as linking narration. The great English playwright William Shakespeare used a one-actor chorus in his history play Henry V.
