Hymne Delphique à Apollon

[Galaad]

[Alain]

C'est une expérience historique assez rare. Je me demande comment ils sont passés des signes aux sons ...

The Delphic Hymns are two musical compositions from Ancient Greece, which survive in substantial fragments. They are dated c.138 BC and 128 BC. The earlier of them, the First Delphic Hymn, is the earliest unambiguous surviving example of notated music from anywhere in the western world.

The First Delphic Hymn was written to Apollo. It was found inscribed in stone in Delphi in 1893 by a French archaeologist; all that is known about its composer is that it was written by an Athenian, around 138 BC, since the part of the inscription giving the name of the composer is difficult to read.

The Second Delphic hymn is slightly more recent, and has been dated to precisely 128 BC; evidently it was first performed in the same year. The name of the composer has also survived, in a separate inscription: Limenius. The occasion of the later hymn was the Pythian Festival, and the earlier hymn was probably written for the boys choir at the Pythian Games in 138 BC.