Following a choral ode, a messenger enters, announcing that the attackers have been repelled but that Eteocles and Polynices have killed each other in battle.
From the en.wikipedia.org
He is generally credited with inventing a new type of choral lyric, the encomium, in particular popularizing a form of it, the victory ode.
From the en.wikipedia.org
Britten's ode to the patron saint of music, to an arch text by W.H. Auden, sounded superb, as did choral works by Schumann and Mahler.