Completion Activity 1: TRAGEY AS A LITERARY GENRE Reference E-book: Greek

Tragedies as Plays of Performance, David Raeburn Topic: Introduction: Greek Tragedy as a

literary genre – pp. 1-10

Questions: After reading the given topic, Answer the questions as directed. Indicate the questions
followed by the answers.

1. Using an annotated timeline, outline the literary forms that make tragedy as a hybrid form.

 Popular Music theatre, the “movements” of a classical symphony or the “numbers” of

an eighteenth-century oratorio 
 Alternate the movements between spoken “episodes” scenes
 One to three solo actors and “odes” (songs) performed by a chorus
 Greek Tragedy’s composite nature and the unique obstacle to ancient dramatist to
maintain continuity
 Understanding how these plays “work” as drama, analyzing the “structure of feeling,” the
controlled sequence of emotional responses implicit in this basic alternation of
movements for chorus
 Th genre called “choral lyric” which is the presentation of cult poetry and danced by a
choir accompaniment of the lyre and other musical instruments (forerunner of the tragic
chorus)
 There were Initially “sacral” worship acts performed in honor oof gods that brings
blessing to the society
 In the term epinikion, a hymn commemorating an athlete’s triumph in one of the great
festivals and it was perfected by the poet Pindar in the fifth century

2. Enumerate and discuss the external factors that make help a playwright or a poet create his
masterpiece. Use bullets then discuss each.

  By the middle of the fifth century, the single “actor,” often the poet himself, had grown
to three professionals who divided all the roles in the play between them.
 Literary study of the ancient genre naturally encourages a wish to advance theories about
the chorus as representing the “ideal spectator” or “the common man,” but these are of
limited value.
  The collective identity as elders, local maidens or whatever, which comes in and out of
focus as they are involved in the play’s main action
 Probably better to see the chorus as one instrument or resource

 The audience’s responses and sympathies as the action proceeds.

3. Discuss the two main types of delivery for tragic plays.

 There are two main types of delivery, the first one is amoibation or kommows. The
developments for soloist and theme together were a unique component and are frequently
high spots in the dramatization when performed. Another one exchange is called
the epirrhema choral singing is stood out from solo talking or the other way around. It
appears to be that the proof isn't there to portray what the vocal conveyance of the
multitude of different sung segments resembled

4. Discuss the importance of music in tragic presentations.

 Music was a fundamental need in the Greek tragedy and I have effectively demonstrated
its significance in depicting the three "methods of expression." It is hard to evaluate the
part it would have played without help from anyone else in the show's absolute effect. No
doubt, when it came to choosing artists to be distributed ensembles for the terrible
celebrations, expertise in music was a less significant model than idyllic, logical and
emotional ability

5. Discuss the subject matters of Greek Tragedy? Where do playwrights derive them?

 The other performance art from which Greek tragedy fairly obviously derives was the
public recitation of epic verse by professionals known as “rhapsodes” at the latest, and
very possibly earlier.