personages. In the third epoch it is the
chorus which plays the secondary part; the interest is transferred to
the families, and the members and heads who represent them in the play,
with whose fate that of the surrounding people is only loosely
connected. Then, the chorus is subordinate, and the figures of the
princes and heroes stand preeminent in all their exclusive magnificence.
This I consider the beautiful style. The pieces of Sophocles stand on
this plane. Since the crowd is forced merely to look on at the heroes
and at fate, and can have no effect on either their special or general
nature, it takes refuge in reflection and assumes the office of an able
and welcome spectator. In the fourth epoch the action withdraws more and
more into the sphere of private interests, and the chorus often appears
as a burdensome custom, as an inherited fixture. It becomes unnecessary,
and therefore, as a part of a living poetic composition, it is useless,
wearisome, and disturbing; as, for example, when it is called upon to
guard secrets in which it has no interest, and things of that sort.
Several examples are to be found in the pieces of Euripides, of which I
will mention _Helen_ and _Iphigenia in Tauris_.

From all this you will see that, for a musical reconstruction of the
chorus, it would be necessary to make experiments in the style of the
first two epochs; and this might be accomplished by means of quite short
oratorios.

* * * * *

LETTER 553

Weimar, June 1, 1805.

Since writing to you last, I have had few happy days. I thought I should
die myself, and instead I lose a friend,[33] and with him the half of my
being. I would really begin a different mode of life, but for one of my
years there is no way of doing that. I only look straight ahead of me
each day, and do the thing nearest to me without thinking of the
consequences.

But as people in every loss and misfortune try to find a pretext for
amusement, I have been urgently solicited in behalf of our theatre, and
on many other sides, to celebrate on the stage the memory of the
departed one. I wish to say nothing further on the subject, except that
I am not disinclined to it, and all I would ask of you now is whether
you are willing to assist me in the matter; and, first, whether you
would furnish me with your motet--"Man lives," etc., about which I have
read in the _Musical Review_, No. 27; also whether you would either
compose some