Musical Absence in Trojan Women

This chapter focuses on the motif of absent music in Troades. Instead of generating action, the music of this play appears stagnant, an endless lament for the destruction of Troy. Descriptions of choral song and dance here underscore an overwhelming sense of devastation, and they demonstrate the vital role such communal music-making played within the physical and cultural fabric of the ancient Greek city. Troades also, however, displays the presencing effect of choral performance: toward the end of the tragedy, the chorus produce a visual and auditory enactment of Troy’s fall, bringing offstage scenes into the theater through their own singing and dancing.