Note 631 — Chapter V · THE DIFFERENCING ELEMENTS OF COMMUNAL POETRY (continued 2)

1 Sam., xviii. 1 ff. Lowth says of the one to another: “hoc est, alternis choris carmen amoebaeum canebant; alteris enim praecinentibus ‘Percussit Saulus millia sua,’ alterae subjiciebant ‘et David suas myriadas.’” Perhaps. Amant alterna Camenæ. But it was rude amœbean, then, a tumultuous chorus, just as in the Fescennine songs of old Italy, and in the songs of Roman soldiers, a roughly divided pair of choruses sang alternately: see Zell, Ferienschriften, II. 149. On the choral nature of old Hebrew poetry see this whole passage in Lowth, pp. 205 f.