Parod

Parod ( dr. Greek πάροδος ) - in the ancient Greek theater ( tragedy and comedy ) a choral song that was performed by the choir during its appearance on the stage when moving to the orchestra ^[1] . The word "parody" also refers to the passage itself (open corridor), a constructive element of the ancient theater .

Defining the parts of the tragedy in his Poetics , Aristotle identifies three genres of choral songs ( dr. Greek χορικόν ) - parody, stasim and commos ( dr. Greek κομμός ). According to Aristotle, a parody is an opening choir, the first performance of a choir that takes place immediately after the prologue . Later Greek dictionaries and reference books ( Souda , Onomasticon Pollux , the dictionary Etymologicum magnum ^[2] , Pseudo-Psell ) with variants reproduce the classical definitions of Aristotle.

Parod and stasim were important elements of the structure of not only tragedy, but also comedy. The Kualen treatise (which is considered a brief summary of the second, lost part of “Poetics”) does not contain the term “parody”, but mentions the “exit of the choir” ( dr. Greek εἴσοδος τοῦ χοροῦ ) as an important watershed in the structure of comedy.

The dramatic significance of the parody was to give the audience first information about the further plot and to set the public as a whole in a manner consistent with the narrative. The earliest tragedies (of those that have come down to us) do not contain parodies. The parody is supposed to be monodic and performed by the choir in unison. Since there are no complete musical samples of the parodies (however, as well as other genres of choral theater music), it is difficult to talk about their more specific compositional and technical features (for example, musical rhythm and harmony ).