Choral poetry is a type of lyric poetry that was created by the ancient Greeks and performed by choruses (see Greek chorus). Originally, it was accompanied by a lyre, a string instrument like a small U-shaped harp commonly used during Greek classical antiquity and later periods. Other accompanying instruments in later years included other string instruments such as the kithara, barbiton, and phorminx, as well as wind instruments such as the aulos, a double-reeded instrument similar to an oboe.
During public religious festivals and important family functions, performances of archaic choral lyric poetry were often presented by choruses of both men and women. The archaic choral lyric poetry spanned about three hundred years, starting with the poet, Alcman, in the 7th century BCE and evolving to the works of Timotheos (or Timotheus of Miletus) in the 4th century BCE.
In the beginning, choral poetry was mainly religious and the personal elements disappeared completely in later choral poems. It also detached itself from local ties and assumed Hellenic character.[1]
These are commonly known subgenres for choral lyric poetry:
The marriage song (Epithalamium or Hymenaios)
The dancing song
The lament or dirge (Threnos[2])
The paean of praise to a god
The maiden song (Partheneion or Parthenion)
The processional (Prosodion)
The hymn
The dithyramb
The hyporchema[3]
And in later years:
Praise for people (Enkomion)
Song at a party or symposium (Skolion)[4]
Song about victory in an athletic contest (Epinikion[5])
^Greek Lyric Poetry: A Complete Selection of the Surviving Passages from the Greek Song-Writers
^Merriam-Webster's Dictionary
^"Archaic Greek Lyric".
^"Ancient History on Choral Lyric Poetry on ancienthistory.about.com". Archived from the original on 2015-09-06. Retrieved 2015-08-04.
Choralpoetry is a type of lyric poetry that was created by the ancient Greeks and performed by choruses (see Greek chorus). Originally, it was accompanied...
next to the shrine of Helen of Troy. There were six books of Alcman's choralpoetry in antiquity (c. 50-60 hymns), but they were lost at the threshold of...
KWIRE; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to...
complex forms are found in the odes of Pindar and the choral sections of Greek drama. In choralpoetry, it is common to find the strophe followed by a metrically...
and dance, truth and prophecy, healing and diseases, the Sun and light, poetry, and more. Asclepius (Ασκληπιός), god of medicine Aceso (Ἀκεσώ), goddess...
all, while standing in the centre. The epode soon took its place in choralpoetry, which it lost when that branch of literature declined. But it extended...
variety of Aeolic verses (whether in Sappho and Alcaeus, or in later choralpoetry) are analyzed as a choriambic nucleus (sometimes expanded, as just mentioned)...
also known as melic poetry. The lyric or melic poet was distinguished from the writer of plays (although Athenian drama included choral odes, in lyric form)...
the 'choral' lyrics of the Ionian poets Simonides and Bacchylides — and it might have been fashionable even in Stesichorus's own day. His poetry included...
Stesichorus of Metauros (choral lyric, 7th century BC) Ibycus of Rhegium (choral lyric, 6th century BC) Simonides of Ceos (choral lyric, 6th century BC)...
Greek lyric is the body of lyric poetry written in dialects of Ancient Greek. It is primarily associated with the early 7th to the early 5th centuries...
that match the five books of poetry attributed to Corinna in antiquity. Corinna, like Pindar, wrote choral lyric poetry – as demonstrated by her invocation...
A choral symphony is a musical composition for orchestra, choir, and sometimes solo vocalists that, in its internal workings and overall musical architecture...
words the poetry of the choir's "Finding Your Voice" competition, which invites students between 6th-12th grade to submit poetry to be set to choral music...
"The Poetry of Wandering Scholars and Wayward Clerics". The Choral Journal. 36: 9. Retrieved 26 April 2023. Works on the topic Medieval poetry at Wikisource...
Soviet and Russian neoromantic composer. He is most widely known for his choral music, strongly influenced by the traditional chant of the Russian Orthodox...
exhortation and reflection, in a kind of responsion similar to Greek choralpoetry. Ancient commentators included Tyrtaeus with Archilochus and Callinus...
love poetry; other themes in the surviving fragments of her work include family and religion. She probably wrote poetry for both individual and choral performance...
than one voice to a part singing in polyphony or harmony are considered choral works. Songs can be broadly divided into many different forms and types...
unpleasant to hear. The later poet Pindar of Thebes was renowned for his choral lyric poetry. All surviving works of Greek drama were composed by playwrights...
glossary of poetry terms. Accent Vedic accent Arsis and thesis: the first and second half of a foot Cadence: the patterning of rhythm in poetry, or natural...
genre of occasional poetry also known in English as a victory ode. In ancient Greece, the epinikion most often took the form of a choral lyric, commissioned...
conventional Elizabethan poetry and an adaptation into English of European baroque and mannerist techniques. His early career was marked by poetry that bore immense...
Unpublished. Choral 2001 My Grandmother's Love Letters Poetry by Hart Crane For SATB Chorus and orchestra Commissioned by the Choral Arts Society of...
"In taberna quando sumus" (English: "When we are in the tavern") is a medieval Latin Goliardic poem, part of the collection known as the Carmina Burana...