| This study examines the 'operatic' or musical element in the lyric meters of Greek drama. Since Aristotle, Greek drama has been understood as a hybrid of chorus and actor, music and narrative. Yet the chorus is still to many a stumbling block, while the study of meter has been likened to 'black magic.' This dissertation examines the meters of the lyric songs in several dramas and considers how the metrical designs of these plays contribute to the works as drama.; The introductory chapter describes the ways meter "means," as well as the likely nature of that meaning. It includes a brief descriptive analysis of various tragic meters and the contexts in which they occur and combine. The second and third chapters examine individual plays, Aeschylus' Persians and Prometheus Bound, to discover if and how the metrical designs of these works contribute to their overall dramatic meaning. The fourth chapter, "Polyhymnia," suggests that the music of Greek drama was treated as a common cultural possession by the composer-poets. In the first part I consider Sophocles' metrical dependence on and independence from his predecessor Aeschylus; the second part deals with the likelihood of reciprocal metrical influence between Sophocles and Euripides. The fifth and final chapter, "Euripidaristophanes," is a musico-dramatic study of Aristophanes' Acharnians, a play in which the comic poet makes explicit his singular "trugic" method of subverting tragedy and its music.; In all, the study considers the musical-dramatic role of lyric meter in selected Greek dramas from 472 through 425. By suggesting the broad dramatic importance of choral song in these ancient Gesamtwerke, it tries to make clear the need for a corresponding Gesamtkritik. |
