Terpandros is ususally regarded as the first to make the choral lyric a developed art form. He was a fellow countryman of Alkaios and Sappho (Lesbos), but appears to have worked mainly in Sparta, where he briefly preceded Alkman. He is also credited with increasing the strings of the lyre from four to seven. Pindar claims that Terpandros was the individual who invented skolia, drinking songs.

• 'Music was first established in Sparta by Terpandros'
  -Plutarch, On Music

• 'The Spartans were fighting among themselves and sent to Lesbos for the musician Terpandros; he came and made their minds tranquil and stopped the quarrel. After that whenever the Spartans listened to a musician, they would say, 'He is not the equal of the poet of Lesbos.'
  -Suda Lexicon

His Poetry

• Zeus, inceptor of all,
  of all things the commander,
  Zeus, I bring you this gift:
  the beginning of song.

• Let us pour a libation
  to the Muses, daughters of Memory, and to Leto's
  son, their lord Apollo.

• The Muse sings brilliantly and
  spears of young men flower.
  Justice, defender of brave works,
  goes down the street of light