Collectively Individual. On the Chorus in 20th Cent. Drama

In December 2015, Pegida-demonstrations in Mainz were sung away by the Mainz opera- choir, singing Beethovens ode to joy, which is the anthem of the European Union. Here, two different types of chorusing stood against each other, namely highly skilled and elaborated singing on the one side and collective shouting of paroles on the other. The question of how much the single voice is heard in either case is exactly the question of this project. The question of how much the single voice counts within the commonly articulated one is one core question of democracy. Already Aristotle compared the democratic community with chorus. So the aesthetical question of the chorus is at the same time the political question of community. Exactly this question is at the core of the here outlined research project. The question can be asked in different ways: What kind of chorus is it that performs at demonstrations in the streets? What chorus is formed by those who sing in the football stadium? What kind of chorus is it, when e.g. ten people are dancing uniformly or even in polyphony? What kind of chorus is the one constituted just in unisono speaking? What becomes different when unisono speaking changes to polyphony, when rhythmic monotony changes to a multiplicity of rhythmic possibilities? And which function do these different choruses have on stage and in drama? Do they address principally a range of the spectators emotions? Or do they, as Brecht wanted them to do, address the brains and thus the possibilities of reflection? Which choruses were, for instance, those that Brecht took as a role model for his theory and praxis of the chorus? To answer all these questions, the dramatic production of playwrights in the 20th and 21st century will be investigated closely. Only then choruses on contemporary stage as well as in the streets can be contextualized adequately historically, aesthetically, and sociologically. Only if one knows the context in which choruses on contemporary stages are located, one is able to see the new as really new and to see at the same time which aspects of the so-called new are not new at all. This project thus should contribute to a historically critical view on contemporary theatre by investigating its context of written drama of the 20th and 21st century. Written drama will be investigated by way of methods from literary studies, mainly hermeneutical interpretation of texts, which will be set in relation to research results of theatre-studies. The chorus, as it appears, is a highly political affair in texts and on stage. So the leading research hypothesis of this aesthetic study has at its core a political as well as an aesthetical question, namely the question about the individual and the collective, the question of the single and the masses, and thus the political as well as the aesthetical question of how many different people are able to build up a common sense or how it is like, to be a community of whatsoever kind.

Actually, just now, in the middle of social isolation due to the "Corona"-Crisis, choral society shows itself in new ways and even more evident. People sit in the windows and sing together or they gather in video-conferences in order to sing or play together - not just for fun but in a deep sense, namely to sense that they are - that we are: a global community. The chorus, as it appears, is a highly political affair in texts as well as on stage. So the leading research hypothesis of this aesthetic study at its core is dominated by a question political as well as an aesthetical, namely the question of the individual and the collective, the question of the single and the masses, and along with this the question of how many different people can accord with each other or of how it is like to be a community of whatsoever kind. It is this question that challenges playwrights and stage directors alike, and mainly so, when taking up the chorus. And here it is, where different concepts of the chorus and even concepts of the choir merge. As an Athenian invention, the negotiation of the individual and the collective on stage is a genuinely democratic affair. It is an inherent task of democracy to find out how much the single voice counts within the commonly articulated one. This relation seems to be never as stable as to give up investigating it. This study exposes functions and mechanisms of choruses in dramas that are historical and diverse and at the same time it elucidates the chorus as a model for sociability from ancient times on (Aristotle takes the chorus as a model for the state) through totalitarian uses of it until our days where the chorus is taken as a model for what we, taking up a term coined by Karl R. Popper, call the Open Society. As to literary studies the most important resultof my research is that there is a line to be drawn through drama production in 20th century that goes from Wagner and Nietzsche via Brecht to Bernhard, Jelinek and Handke and, surprisingly, it is Beethoven that is the red thread through this. From this token dramatic choruses have their political relevance not only on stages but, for instance, also very concrete, as the European anthem or as demonstrations and flash mobs in the streets.