Fragment of the Oxyrhynchus hymn
Music is found in every culture around the world and has existed for at least 55,000 years.
Although musical compositions may have existed this far back in human history, the earliest written songs only date back to over 3,000 years ago.
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The Oxyrhynchus Hymn is the earliest known manuscript of a Christian Greek hymn to contain both lyrics and musical notation.
The papyrus on which the hymn was written dates from around the end of the 3rd century AD.
It is on Papyrus 1786 of the Oxyrhynchus papyri, now kept at the Papyrology Rooms of the Sackler Library, Oxford.
The manuscript was discovered in 1918 in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, and later published in 1922.
The lyrics of the Oxyrhynchus hymn were written in Greek, and poetically invoke silence for the praise of the Holy Trinity (i.e. cosmic stillness, a motif of ancient Greek hymnody).
Historically, the hymn demonstrates Greek civilizational continuity where erudite Christian Greeks used and accepted the musical notation of their classical Greek predecessors.
The music is written in Greek vocal notation.
The text is largely set syllabically, with a few short melismas.
The Oxyrhynchus hymn is the only surviving fragment of notated Christian Greek music from the first four hundred years of the Christian period, although historian and musician Kenneth Levy has argued that the Sanctus melody best preserved in the Western medieval Requiem mass dates from around the fourth century.
The Phos Hilaron and the Oxyrhynchus hymn constitute the earliest extant Christian Greek hymn texts reasonably certain to have been used in Christian worship, but are neither drawn from the Bible nor modeled on Biblical passages:
. . . together all the eminent ones of God. . .
. . . night nor day … Let it/them be silent. Let the luminous stars not [. . .],
. . . Let the rushings of winds, the sources] of all surging rivers [cease]. While we hymn
Father and Son and Holy Spirit, let all the powers answer, "Amen, amen, Strength, praise,
[and glory forever to God], the sole giver of all good things. Amen, amen."
Oxyrhynchus Hymn (c. 300 AD)