Terpander

Terpander (fl. 7th century BC), Greek poet and musician, often described as the father of Greek lyric poetry and classical music. Terpander was born at Antissa on the island of Lesbos (now Lésvos) but spent most of his life in Sparta. The surviving fragments of his work are of doubtful authenticity, but scholars generally agree that he played an important part in the development of classical music and lyric poetry in Greece during the first half of the 7th century bc. A performer on the lyre and the flute, Terpander composed for both instruments. He is said by some to have been the first to increase the number of strings on the lyre from four to seven, but others credit him only with the introduction into Greece of an improved lyre invented elsewhere. Most of Terpander’s poetry consists of nomes, which are sacred poems written in honour of a god and sung by a single performer to the accompaniment of a lyre or flute. Some authorities attribute to Terpander the invention of musical notation, but this is widely contested.