Old Tragedy, modern oratorio

 I like Aeschylus’s plays, and I like the form of Old Tragedy. The playwright of Aeschylus’s day had limits: He was given a chorus and a couple of actors.

People knew the story behind these tragedies before they got to the theater. It was shared myth. The playwright couldn’t really make a plot with the idea of keeping the audience in suspense. Instead, the actors would carry the narrative along, and the chorus would come in with gorgeous poetry, emphasizing where we in the audience ought to feel the story and not just think about it.

Some scholars say it’s a mistake to compare Old Tragedy to oratorio, but that’s what I’ve been doing.

I like that form, too, although I suppose it’s been out of style since Handel died. I like following a story by listening to music, and I think the Greek audiences must have liked following a story by listening to poetry.

My play list included a couple of Soviet-era pieces:

• Sergei Prokofiev’s “On Guard for Peace”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqivbo3nN3M

• Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Song of the Forests”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp3677LsJmQ

Both were new to me, though both composers have written music I love. (If I had to pick favorites: Prokofiev’s ballet “Romeo and Juliet” and Shostakovich’s last “Sonata for Viola and Piano.”)

Also: Herbert Howells’s “Hymnus Paradisi,” Igor Stravinsky’s “Oedipus Rex, William Walton’s “Belshazzar’s Feast” and Bohuslav Martinu’s “Epic of Gilgamesh.” There’s some debate about what to call some of these pieces, whether they are oratorios or something else. I’ll leave that to scholars. I just dropped in to listen.