Terpander (Greek: Τέρπανδρος Terpandros), of Antissa in Lesbos, was a Greek poet and citharede who lived about the first half of the 7th century BC. He was the father of Greek music and through it, of lyric poetry, although his own poetical compositions were few and in extremely simple rhythms. He simplified rules of the modes of singing of other neighboring countries and islands and formed, out of these syncopated variants, a conceptual system.[1] Though endowed with an inventive mind, and the commencer of a new era of music, he attempted no more than to systematize the musical styles that existed in the music of Greece and Anatolia.[2] Terpander is perhaps the earliest historically certain figure in the music of Ancient Greece.[3]
- ^ From which the Greek music theory continued thereafter in all the improvements and refinements of later ages
- ^ Müller, Karl Otfried (1847). History of the Literature of Ancient Greece. Vol. I. p. 149.
- ^ Reese, Gustave (1940). Music in the Middle Ages: With an Introduction on the Music of Ancient Times. Lanham, Maryland: W. W. Norton & Company. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-393-09750-4.