Stasimon () in

Greek tragedy Greek tragedy is a form of theatre from Ancient Greece and Greek inhabited Anatolia. It reached its most significant form in Athens in the 5th century BC, the works of which are sometimes called Attic tragedy. Greek tragedy is widely believed t ...

is a stationary song, composed of

strophe A strophe () is a poetic term originally referring to the first part of the ode in Ancient Greek tragedy, followed by the antistrophe and epode. The term has been extended to also mean a structural division of a poem containing stanzas of varying ...

s and

antistrophe Antistrophe ( grc, ἀντιστροφή, "a turning back") is the portion of an ode sung by the chorus in its returning movement from west to east, in response to the strophe, which was sung from east to west. Characteristics Usage as a lit ...

s and performed by the

chorus Chorus may refer to: Music * Chorus (song) or refrain, line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse * Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound * Chorus form, song in which all verse ...

in the

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

(, "place where the chorus dances").

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

states in the ''

Poetics Poetics is the theory of structure, form, and discourse within literature, and, in particular, within poetry. History The term ''poetics'' derives from the Ancient Greek ποιητικός ''poietikos'' "pertaining to poetry"; also "creative" an ...

'' (1452b23) that each choral song (or ''melos'') of a tragedy is divided into two parts: the ''

parodos A parodos (also parode and parodus; grc, πάροδος, 'entrance', plural ), in the theater of ancient Greece, is a side-entrance to the stage, or the first song that is sung by the chorus at the beginning of a Greek tragedy. Side-entrance to t ...

'' () and the ''stasimon''. He defines the latter as "a choral song without

anapaest An anapaest (; also spelled anapæst or anapest, also called antidactylus) is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. In classical quantitative meters it consists of two short syllables followed by a long one; in accentual stress meters it consist ...

s or

trochaic In English poetic metre and modern linguistics, a trochee () is a metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one. But in Latin and Ancient Greek poetic metre, a trochee is a heavy syllable followed by a light one (al ...

s". This comment about the absence of anapest and trochee has been interpreted to mean that the music was not based on the usual “walking” meters, since the chorus sings the stasimon while remaining in the orchestra. After making its entrance singing the parodos, it does not usually leave the orchestra until the end of the play. The ''

Suda The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; grc-x-medieval, Σοῦδα, Soûda; la, Suidae Lexicon) is a large 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas (Σούδας) or Souidas ...

'', an 11th-century Byzantine encyclopedia, attributes the establishment of the choral singing of a stasimon to the celebrated

kitharode A kitharode ( Latinized citharode) : ( translit. Greek) * citharode (Anglicised translit. Latin) * kitharode (Anglicised translit. Greek) : * citharede (rare) * citharoede (rare) : * citharist (English translation Latin) * kitharist (English t ...

Arion of Hermione.

Thomas J. Mathiesen Thomas James Mathiesen (born 30 April 1947) is an American musicologist, whose research focuses on Ancient music and the music theory of ancient and early music, early periods. A leading scholar of the Music of ancient Greece, music of Ancient G ...

, ''Apollo's Lyre: Greek Music and Music Theory in Antiquity and the Middle Ages'', Publications of the Center for the History of Music Theory and Literature 2 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999): 74.

References

{{reflist Ancient Greek songs Doric Greek Ancient Greek theatre fr:Tragédie grecque#Structure et langue