Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/790

* CHORUS. 692 CHOSE IN ACTION. early Greeks, a festal dance, accompanied by music. Tlirough its development in llic Attic theatre, the word came to mean particularly the group of dancing singers wlio took part in the rendering of a play, and was also apjilied to the parts of the composition itself which they performed. The primitive dithyraml)ic cliorus of tifty voices in honor of Dionysus, supplemented by the addition of actors (see .kiox ; TiiKtspis), was in fact the source of the Greek drama. In the time of the Attic tragedy the chorus consisted of twelve or fifteen i)ersons, in charac- ter belitting the scene and nature of the plot, who usually made their entrance to the orches- tra from the sides early in the play, and re- mained there before the stage throughout the performance. .t pauses in the acting, the cho- rus, with an accompaniment of dancing move- ments, sang lyrical passages having reference .suggestively to the subject and progress of the drama, and serving to heighten and solemnize the impression jiroduccd by the actors. Occasionally the chorus, in the person of its leader, called the corypheus, participated briefly in the dialogue itself. 'I'lie clicirus lias been thought to repre- sent the attitude of the ideal spectator of the action, taking part with or against the persons on the stage by advice, comfort, exhortation, or dissuasion. At times the chorus was divided, and spoke or sang antiphonally. These divisions passed from side to side in movements from which originated the naming of the single songs or stanzas, such as strophe, antistrophe, and epode. Of the musical element in the composi- tion of the ancient choruses little is known with any certainty. Possibly it was only a kind of rhj'thmie declamation, and very simple, though the metres of its verse are often complicated. It ■was accompanied by flutes in unison. The charge of organizing the chorus was con- sidered a great distinction among the people of Athens, being one of the public services (/.eiTovpylai, Icitourgiai) offered bj' rich citizens to the State. The person appointed for the purpose was called the choraffus, and the one most successful in each competition was awarded a prize. The honor was expensive, as the cluiragus had to pay all the cost of training the chorus, besides feeding and lodging them and providing their masques and dresses. In comedy, the chorus was somewhat more numerous than in tragedy, and was often fan- tastically adapted to the humor of the story, as, for instance, that in the Cloudx and that in the Frogs, comedies of Aristophanes. Later com- edy, liowever, gradually discarded the chorus, and with the decline of ancient tragedy the chorus fell into disuse. In recent times there has been some attempt, as in Schiller's Bride of Messina, to produce the chorus on the stage in the manner of the ancients; but the music that has been occasionally set to some of the Greek tragedies can give but slight idea of that which originally aeeom])anied them. In general, by the term 'chorus' is understood .a musical composi- tion arranged to be sung by a considerable num- ber of voices together; or the body of singers who collectively perform it, with or without in- strumental accompaniment. The musical chorus is the only artistic means by which a simultaneous movement or sentiment of a multitude can be represented in the drama, the language or text being always of a simple rhythm, permitting only of a limited movement suited to the combination of a multitude. It is, however, not always necessary that every part of the chorus should manifest the same feeling or sentiment. Two or more parts of the chorus may act against each other, as suits the purport of the drama. IJoul)le, triple, and <iua<lru])le choruses are found in the old Italian comi)osilious for the Church. In opera (q.v.) the niemljers of the chorus are generally entirely involved in the action of the play and realistically represent characters which figure in the dramutis /itrsonce. Of modern operas, the chorus has been used with especial elTcct in those of Jleyerbeer and Wagner. In oratorio (q.v.) the chorus is of the greatest importance, aiitl the numbers now cm])loyed to sing the chorus far exceed anything attempted a cen- tury ago; this is not always an advantage, for the iempi must necessarily be taken much more slowly, which has a sluggish eflect; while in- crease in the luimber of voices does not always produce a greater power of sound. The chorus of thirty-five well-trained voices from the Pope's chapel, which sang at the coronation of Xapoleon 1., in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris, is said to have produced a fur greater and more wonderful effect when they entered singing the Til es I't'trtis, than another chorus of hundreds of voices, and eighty harps, that had been assem- bled and trained for the same occasion, in ex- pectation of surpassing all that man could im- agine. The greater the number, the greater is the difliculty in obtaining unity. — C1108T.S, in organ- building, is the name given to stops of the mix- ture species, some of which contain 2, 3, 4. 5, 6, or more pipes to each note, tuned at consonant intervals in relation to the fundamental stops. Consult: Ilaigh, The Altic Tlicalrc (Oxford, 1889) ; id., The Tragic Drama of the drechs (Ox- ford, 1806) ; Donaldson, The Theatre of thr Greeks (London, 8th ed., 1875) ; Mees, Chorus and Choral Music (New York, 1901). CHOSE (shoz) IN ACTION (1>. c/iosc, thing, from Med. Lat. cosa, cinisn. thing, Lat. causa, cause). In the law of England, that kind of property which is founded not in possession, but in the (egal right to possess. .s this riglit can, in general, be vindicated and made available only by means of an action, the property to which it relates, whether real or personal, is called a thing (Lat. res, or Fr. cliose) in action, to dis- tinguish it from a thing already in possession. The right to recover money due on bonds and bills, and that to recover on goods bought and not yet delivered, are examples of ehoses in ac- tion, as is also the right to compensation for damages occasioned by breach of contract or by tort. B.v the strict rule of the ancient common law, no chose in action could be assigned or granted over, because it was thought to be a great en- couragement to litigiousness if a man were al- lowed to make over to a stranger bis right of going to law. (See Champerty.) But this nicety is not now so far regarded as to render such a transaction really ineffectual. It is, on the contrary, in substance a valid and constant practice; though, in compliance with the ancient/ principle, the cll'ect of assigning a chose in action is to confer on the assignee a power of attorney to prosecute the action in the assignor's name for the assignee's own benefit. The assignment has this effect in law, and not in equity alone, as