Melodrama.
Next, somebody (Archilocus) sought to heighten the effect of the story or the dialogue by consorting it with instrumental music; and thus we find the germ of what musicians—not newspaper writers—call melodrama, in the very early stages of the drama's development. Gradually these simple rustic entertainments were taken in hand by the poets who drew on the legendary stores of the people for subjects, branching out from the doings of gods to the doings of god-like men, the popular heroes, and developed out of them the masterpieces of dramatic poetry which are still studied with amazement, admiration, and love.
Factors in ancient tragedy.
The dramatic factors which have been mustered in this outline are these:
1. The choric dance and song with a religious purpose.
2. Recitation and dialogue.
3. Characterization by means of imitative gestures—pantomime, that is—and dress.
4. Instrumental music to accompany the song and also the action.
Operatic elements.
Words and music united.