Also choregus. Pl. choragi, -egi. [L. chorāgus, a. Gr. χορηγός (Att. and Dor. χορᾱγός), f. χορός CHORUS + ἄγειν to lead.]
1. Gr. Antiq. The leader of a chorus; spec. at Athens, one who defrayed the cost of bringing out a chorus. (Cf. CHORUS sb. 1.)
1820. T. Mitchell, Aristoph., I. 202. The office of choregus or chorus-master, was both honourable and expensive. Each of the ten tribes furnished one annually.
1839. Thirlwall, Greece, V. 261. Demosthenes … had … undertaken to act as choragus—to furnish a chorus—for his tribe, at one of the Dionysiac festivals.
1849. Grote, Greece (1862), VI. II. lxvii. 31. The comic chorus in that early time consisted of volunteers, without any chorêgus.
2. The title of a functionary in the University of Oxford, originally appointed (in 1626) to superintend the practice of music; he now assists the Professor of Music in musical examinations, etc.
1626. Dr. Heather, Enactment, in Grove, Dict. Mus., s.v. If no one shall attend the meetings in the Music School, then the Choragus himself shall sing with two boys for at least an hour.
1880. C. A. Fyffe, ibid. In the year 1626, Dr. William Heather, desirous to ensure the study and practice of music at Oxford in future ages, established the offices of Professor, Choragus, and Coryphæus, and endowed them with modest stipends…. No Choragus has either conducted or sung in the Music School within the memory of man.
1886. Oxf. Univ. Calendar, 26 (Choragus). Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, M.A., D.Mus., Exeter.
3. transf. and fig. The leader of a chorus, or of a choir; the leader of a band of any kind.
1727. Warburton, Prodigies, 93 (T.). [He affirms] that in this fantastick farce of life … the whole machinery is of human direction; and the mind the only choragus of the entertainment.
1795. Mason, Ch. Mus., iii. 212. Here he might be considered as the Choragus.
1839. Carlyle, Chartism, viii. 167. In this … sword-dance … Voltaire is but one choragus, where … Arkwright is another.
1874. J. H. Blunt, Dict. Sects, s.v. Broad Churchmen, Colenso was at once elevated to the post of choragus by the bulk of the Broad Churchmen.
