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The Delphic Hymns are two musical compositions from Ancient Greece, which survive in substantial fragments. They are dated 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. Sometimes billed as “Chris Halaris,“ Hellen composer and scholar Christodoulos Halaris is a leading expert on the study and reconstruction of ancient Hellenic and Byzantine music. Her turned to musicology and composing after studying mathematics in Paris. Taking his cues from religious iconography and traditional popular Hellenic music, Halaris began reconstructing fragmentary old Hellenic music documents. His re-imagining of secular Byzantine music, with what Hallaris identifies as roots in Hellenic song, has met with skepticism from some scholars, but it is based on a serious study of a number of sources and centuries of related developments in Hellenic music. He has published more than fifty compact discs of this music, and helped create the Museum of Thessalonica, devoted to Hellenic music and also engaged in a significant project revolving around European medieval music.
