Singing the City<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Barbara Kowalzig (Singing for the Gods, 5) observes that “Choral song was everywhere in the Greek world, and even if we attempt to avoid the risk of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/04\/singing-the-city\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Singing the City\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Barbara Kowalzig (Singing for the Gods, 5) observes that “Choral song was everywhere in the Greek world, and even if we attempt to avoid the risk of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/04\/singing-the-city\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Leithart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-04-03T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter Leithart\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@PLeithart\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter Leithart\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/04\/singing-the-city\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/04\/singing-the-city\/\",\"name\":\"Singing the City\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-04-03T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-04-03T00:00:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d\"},\"description\":\"Barbara Kowalzig (Singing for the Gods, 5) observes that “Choral song was everywhere in the Greek world, and even if we attempt to avoid the risk of\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/04\/singing-the-city\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/04\/singing-the-city\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/04\/singing-the-city\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Singing the City\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/\",\"name\":\"Leithart\",\"description\":\"My blog is a public notebook, featuring essays, notes, and explorations on Scripture, theology, literature, politics, culture.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d\",\"name\":\"Peter Leithart\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Peter Leithart\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PLeithart\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/author\/pleithart\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Singing the City","description":"Barbara Kowalzig (Singing for the Gods, 5) observes that “Choral song was everywhere in the Greek world, and even if we attempt to avoid the risk of","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/04\/singing-the-city\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Singing the City","og_description":"Barbara Kowalzig (Singing for the Gods, 5) observes that “Choral song was everywhere in the Greek world, and even if we attempt to avoid the risk of","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/04\/singing-the-city\/","og_site_name":"Leithart","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/","article_published_time":"2014-04-03T00:00:00+00:00","author":"Peter Leithart","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@PLeithart","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Peter Leithart","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/04\/singing-the-city\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/04\/singing-the-city\/","name":"Singing the City","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-04-03T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2014-04-03T00:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d"},"description":"Barbara Kowalzig (Singing for the Gods, 5) observes that “Choral song was everywhere in the Greek world, and even if we attempt to avoid the risk of","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/04\/singing-the-city\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/04\/singing-the-city\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/04\/singing-the-city\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Singing the City"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/","name":"Leithart","description":"My blog is a public notebook, featuring essays, notes, and explorations on Scripture, theology, literature, politics, culture.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d","name":"Peter Leithart","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Peter Leithart"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/PLeithart"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/author\/pleithart\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3021"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15789\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":15789,"date":"2014-04-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=777"},"modified":"2014-04-03T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-04-03T00:00:00","slug":"singing-the-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/04\/singing-the-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Singing the City"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Barbara Kowalzig (Singing for the Gods<\/a>, 5) observes that \u201cChoral song was everywhere in the Greek
\nworld, and even if we attempt to avoid the risk of viewing the entirety of Greek
\ncivilization through the choral lens, it is nevertheless clear that dancing in
\nthe Greek khoros <\/em>was a ubiquitous, and culturally highly prolific, social practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

She suggests that the chorus was ubiquitous because of its intimate relation with membership\u00a0in the polis<\/em>: \u201cOne reason for this ubiquity lies no doubt in the chorus being a representation of
\n\u2018community\u2019 and closely related to questions of group identity on many possible
\nlevels: local civic identity within the framework of the ancient city, but also on
\nthe Panhellenic stage and even beyond. Class, gender, and age identity are also
\nformulated within the chorus. Singing in the chorus is often seen as typical of
\nthe archaic polis <\/em>world and as much a feature of the aristocratic community as a
\nway of handling conflict arising from it, for example in the way it commands
\nambitious individuals to dance along to a common tune.\u201d<\/p>\n

In short, \u201cChoral song and dance is held to be socially integrative and fundamental to the community\u2019s well-being, and it affords a social cohesion in which the common reference system of local gods and heroes plays an important role. Choral singing is something traditional, handed down from generation to generation with the implication of unchangeability, and it shapes the relations of the participants, both with one another and with their past. Choral performance of myth and ritual is a vehicle for social interaction and guarantees stability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, being Greeks, they would not represent the city other than agonistically. Citing Peter Wilson\u2019s\u00a0The Anthenian Institute of Khoregia<\/a>, Kowalzig notes, \u201cin classical Athens the practice of \u2018leading the chorus\u2019
\nopenly exploited the image of collective representation in the khoros and turned
\ncommunal dancing into a fierce and vain competition over staging one\u2019s engagement
\nfor the city\u2019s welfare. The chorus was thus by no means purely an instrument
\nof community representation but also a field of social competition, which
\nallowed the conspicuous demonstration of social hierarchies within the group\u201d (6).<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"