Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/530

 518 CHOKON CHOSE IN ACTION write for it occasionally. His principal published works are : " Conti the Discarded, and other Tales " (3 vols., 1835) ; " Sketches of a Seaport Town," a novel (3 vols., 1835) ; " Memorials of Mrs. Hemans" (2 vols., 1836) ; " Lion, a Tale of the Coteries" (3 vols., 1839) ; "Music and Man- ners in France and Germany " (3 vols., 1841) ; " Pomfret, a Novel " (3 vols., 1845) ; "Criticisms on Modern German Music" (2 vols., 1854) ; and " Thirty Years' Musical Recollections" (2 vols., 1862). Mr. Chorley's "Autobiography, Me- moirs, and Letters," compiled by H. G. Hew- lett, was published in 1873 (2 vols., London). CHORON, Alexandra Etienne, a French musi- cian and author, born at Caen, Oct. 21, 1771, died in Paris, June 29, 1834. He invented a sys- tem of notation in order to preserve the songs which he heard or composed. He afterward studied music under the best masters, but was equally interested in the physical sciences and mathematics. In 1794 he was appointed chief of brigade to the polytechnic school, where he passed several years. In 1815 he became director of the opera, which office he held for only 17 months. He founded in 1817 a musi- cal school for children, which afterward took the name of Institution royale de musique religieuse. His most important work is his Principe de composition des ecoles d^Italie. He left many others unfinished, among them a Dictionnaire historique de musiciens, CHORUS (Gr. xpk originally a dance in a ring, or round dance ; then any dance accom- panied by music, or choral dance. The chorus was an integral part of the Grecian drama, both tragic and comic, and was developed with it from its first rudiments in the religious proces- sions in honor of Bacchus, with dithyrambic songs, dances, jokes, the wagon and sacred goat, through the improvements of Thespis (about 530 B. C.), who created a kind of stage, and intro- duced an actor reciting in monologues the deeds of the gods and heroes, and through those of ^Eschylus, who added another actor, shortened the songs and dances, and introduced the dia- logue, down to the sublime creations of Sopho- cles and Euripides. The chorus, being of Doric origin, maintained its solemnity in form, and even in dialect. In its final state it was, in the tragedy, a group of persons of both sexes, the elders of the people, priests, counsellors of the king, matrons, captive virgins present as spec- tators at the scene of the action, representing I to some extent in their lyrical utterance the emotions and thoughts of the audience. When the actors paused, the chorus sung or spoke, accompanied by solemn music, sometimes only through their leader, called the coryphaeus, sometimes through different parts addressing each other and replying, while moving from j one side of the stage to the other, in so-called ; strophes (turns), antistrophes (counter-turns), and epodes (after-songs), enhancing the im- pression of the action by their remarks, by ex- pressions of joy, sorrow, admiration, or horror, as caused by the things seen; by hymns of thanks, or supplications to the gods ; or ad- dressing the heroes of the scene, advising or consoling, warning or approving in moralizing strains. It was thus that the chorus, standing between the heroes and the people, reflected as a mirror the conscience of the former and the consciousness of the latter, both affected by mighty events and tragic developments. The chorus thus forms the distinctive feature of the ancient drama, whose imitation has often, and almost always unsuccessfully, been attempted by modern poets, as for instance by Schiller in his Braut von Messina. The tragic cho- rus, in the periods subsequent to ^Eschylus, usually consisted of 15 members; the comic of 24. That ^Eschylus employed choruses of 50 is believed by some critics, but considered improbable by others. In the comic or sa- tirical drama the chorus consisted of satyrs, and had its songs and dances mostly of a frivolous character. The providing for the choruses, the equipment and instruction, was in Athens an honorable though burdensome office, called choragia. (See CHORAGUS.) In modern music, a chorus is a composition in several parts, each of which is to be sung by a plurality of voices, while all the parts are to- be combined together in one simultaneous per- formance. The term is also applied to the per- formers who sing these parts. In operas and oratorios the chorus is indispensable to afford relief to the solos, duets, trios, and the like, as well as to express the culmination of any sen- timent or passion ; and composers have often made use of it with the happiest effect where the orchestra or single voices would prove to- tally inadequate. In secular music, the " Con- juration " chorus in Rossini's " William Tell," and the "Benediction of the Poniards" in Meyerbeer's " Huguenots;" and in sacred mu- sic, the choruses in Handel's oratorios, and particularly in the "Messiah," are admirable specimens of this form of composition, and when well performed, with full orchestral ac- companiments, produce the most sublime and thrilling effects of which music is capable. CHOSE IN ACTION, that species of property which, in distinction from property in posses- sion, consists in the right to reduce something of value to possession by means of some legal remedy. Thus, the right to recover money due on a bond is a chose in action, of which the bond is the evidence ; and the right to re- cover damages for the unlawful conversion of one's property by another is also a chose in ac- tion. Formerly the law did not recognize a quality of assignability to such rights, but an exception was made of bills of exchange and promissory notes payable to order or bearer, and which in technical language were called negotiable ; and the courts of equity went fur- ther, and protected the rights of assignees in all cases where the demand was for money due by contract express or implied, or for the con- version of property. And now the courts of law also recognize and protect the rights of as-