Abstract

The article traces the origins of the intimate association between theatre and music, traditionally considered two separate arts. The roots of this unity are sought in physical anthropology, neuroscience, and literary records. The history of the unified growth of theatre and music as well as their later separation have been considered to indicate the influence of religious bias, social stratification, and political bias that have worked towards the polarization of theatre and music. The history of western Opera has been cited together with the achievement of Wagner, and the great theatrical experiments of Tagore in India as epochal instances of the reunification of the two.