Dialog hinter den Worten: Zu den dramaturgischen Augenblicken des Wechsels zwischen Gesang und Sprechversen auf der Bühne des Aischylos

Abstract

This paper aims to show how Aeschylus uses abrupt shifts of musical register in order to explore or to express what characters for some reason cannot verbalize. After specifying what is meant by an ‘abrupt shift of musical register’, I analyse the dramatic function of this effect by examining the three instances in Aeschylus where an epirrhematic section turns abruptly into an amoibaion (Ag. 1072–1177 and 1407–1576) or vice versa (Supp. 825–910). In Aeschylus’ dramaturgy, the lyric/epirrhematic dialogue between a character and the chorus, embedded as it is in Greek mousikē and song-dance culture, seems inherently open to communicating on an additional, wordless ʻchannelʼ.