ABSTRACT
We may consider ourselves fortunate in being able to read and interpret the ancient Greek notation signs; but that good fortune does not extend to the preservation of a generous number of scores to which the knowledge could be applied. Of all the great quantity of music composed over the centuries between (say) 600 BC and AD 400, of which a significant fraction might have been written down at some time or other, we have only a miserably small collection of scores, ranging in length from the second Delphic paian, which may have lasted about 15 minutes in performance, to some minute fragments containing less than a dozen words, and less than the full complement of notes. Moreover, apart from two small fragments which may have been composed by Euripides we have no remains of the sixth or fifth centuries BC - the great periods of lyric poetry, tragedy and comedy. The two Delphic paians are the earliest substantial pieces that we have, and they date from late in the second century BC. (It is true that they show archaizing tendencies, and may preserve something of the flavour of much earlier music, but it is difficult to pinpoint specific features with any certainty.) At the other end of the time-scale we have a Christian hymn which was copied in the third century AD, and probably written not very much earlier.
