Excerpt from Impressions of the Ammergau Passion-Play

The Resurrection. Appearances of Christ. Final scene of glory.

The Chorus, twenty in number, step out half from each side of the broad stage in front of the Theatre proper. Theyadvance slowly till the two leaders meet; then they turn round and face the audience in a long line. They are all in the same long robes of various colours, reaching down to their feet. The Head or Foreman, a fine man with a black beard, addresses the audience, explanatory of what is to follow then they all sing a melodious chant and at last draw back into two semi-circles, one on each Side of the Theatre and as the curtain rises for the Tableaux, one of their number sings an air exhibiting the motif, as the curtain falls, they all again advance to the front, catching up the air and chanting the appropriate warnings and exhortations this over, they all file out, and the real scene begins. This is generally acted inside the covered Theatre, but in the crowded scenes, the greater part of the stage is taken up. The Impression produced by the Chorus is entirely the effect of its dignity. Every one of its movements is slow and deliberate; each member of it does exactly the same as the others: all is calm and studied. There is but little excitement, and the variety of each scene only produces a measured change in the temper of the songs, the pathos of which rises and falls without any strong effort or violent emotion. The music is always pretty, with a light Mozartesque prettiness, sometimes it is fine but its general character is rather that of a long chant with a refrain which, with some slight variation, seems for ever recurring over and over again. I kept wondering how the Chorus knew where it had got to, the music seemed so alike all through. Then again the Chorus has only three motions of the hands, one calling attention, one for exhortation, one for warning. All the hands rise and fall together with wonderful evenness and regularity. A profane person would call it sea-sawing but there was such a calm and quiet solemnity about it that at last a dreamy interest of association, a hoary dignity began to cling round it. On the round of move ments went, continuous and unchanging, with a rhythmic cadence like the refrain of an Old ballad, until you look the same sort of half-attentive pleasure in it as in the ceaseless plashing of a fountain. There is a mesmeric influence, a downy power in repetition, which is apparently more strongly felt in primitive times than in our own. We are toorestless and scurried to appreciate this poetry Of conservatism, but it is evidently as natural as it is healthy. It was this power which the Chorus exercised. Everything it did was multiple or at least double. The Leader was not a centre to the others, he simply headed one half. The dresses appeared various enough, but on examining you found that the succession of colours was the same in each semi-chorus. The very sex of the performers was concealed. This was all m thorough harmony with the monotonous swaying of the hands, with the Sing-song swing of the Chant, and all served to keep up to the full the characteristic notion of the Chorus as a musical accompaniment, that which marks the time of the song, as it were, reflecting and repeating and answering in its Chords the modulations of the main melody.

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