Nikolay Diletsky (, Nikolay Pavlovich Diletsky, Nikolai Diletskii, , also ''Mikolaj Dylecki'', ''Nikolai Dilezki'', , Mykola Dyletsky, etc.; c. 1630,

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

– after 1680,

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

) was a

music theorist Music theory is the study of theoretical frameworks for understanding the practices and possibilities of music. '' The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory": The first is the " rudiments", that ...

and composer born in the

Kiev Voivodeship The Kiev Voivodeship (; ; ) was a unit of administrative division and local government in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1471 until 1569 and of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland from 1569 until 1793, as part of Lesser Poland Province of ...

of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and active in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. He was widely influential in late 17th-century Russia with his treatise on

musical composition Musical composition can refer to an Originality, original piece or work of music, either Human voice, vocal or Musical instrument, instrumental, the musical form, structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new pie ...

, ''A Musical Grammar'', of which the earliest surviving version dates from 1677. Diletsky's followers included the Russian composer Vasily Titov.

Life

Little is known about Diletsky's life. A remark by Ioannikii Trofimovich Korenev, a fellow theorist who describes him as a resident of

, is considered evidence of Diletsky's Ukrainian origins. Korenev's statement is probably reliable, as he and Diletsky apparently were well acquainted. However, the date and even the year of birth are not known, and no details on Diletsky's early life have surfaced. He must have moved to

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

before 1675, because that year his ''Toga zlota'' ("The golden toga") was published there. The text is now lost, but it is known that it was written in Polish, and the surviving title page indicates that it was probably a

panegyric A panegyric ( or ) is a formal public speech or written verse, delivered in high praise of a person or thing. The original panegyrics were speeches delivered at public events in ancient Athens. Etymology The word originated as a compound of - ' ...

al pamphlet. Some sources indicate that he wrote at least one other musical treatise while in Vilnius, which is now lost: this treatise is first mentioned in ''Grammatika musikiyskago peniya'' (1677), and the ''Idea grammatikii musikiiskoi'' (1679) is described as a translation of the Vilnius work in its title page. After Vilnius, Diletsky lived in

Smolensk Smolensk is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River, west-southwest of Moscow. First mentioned in 863, it is one of the oldest cities in Russia. It has been a regional capital for most of ...

, where in 1677 the first surviving version of his magnum opus, ''Grammatika musikiyskago peniya'' ("A grammar of musical singing"), was written. He then moved to Moscow, where the subsequent two versions of the work appeared in 1679 and 1681. Nothing further is known about Diletsky's life, and it is generally assumed that he died shortly afterwards. His date of birth is projected from this hypothesis.

Work

Although several of his compositions survive, Diletsky's fame rests chiefly on his composition treatise, ''Grammatika musikiyskago peniya'' (''A Grammar of Music l Singing'), which was the first of its kind in Russia. The three surviving versions bear different names, but the content is roughly the same with some important differences.Jensen 1992, 307. The treatise is in two parts. The first teaches the rudiments of music theory, "relying heavily on Western terminology and theoretical precepts, especially the

hexachord In music, a hexachord (also hexachordon) is a six- note series, as exhibited in a scale ( hexatonic or hexad) or tone row. The term was adopted in this sense during the Middle Ages and adapted in the 20th century in Milton Babbitt's serial t ...

", and the second teaches composition of

a cappella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...

concerto A concerto (; plural ''concertos'', or ''concerti'' from the Italian plural) is, from the late Baroque era, mostly understood as an instrumental composition, written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble. The ...

s, a genre that came to Russia through Ukraine and of which Diletsky was one of the first exponents. Diletsky provides a wide variety of examples, both from his own work, including an 8-voice setting of the Divine Liturgy that he composed in Smolensk specifically to illustrate the ''Grammatika,'' and from that of contemporary Western composers, particularly the Poles Marcin Mielczewski and Jacek Różycki. Apart from the tremendous influence it had on subsequent generations of Russian church composers, the ''Grammatika'' is of particular interest for having the first known description of the

circle of fifths In music theory, the circle of fifths (sometimes also cycle of fifths) is a way of organizing pitches as a sequence of perfect fifths. Starting on a C, and using the standard system of tuning for Western music (12-tone equal temperament), the se ...

, one that antedates Western examples by several decades.

List of works

Writings

*''Grammatika musikiyskago peniya'' (''Грамматика муcикийского пения'', "A grammar of musical song", Smolensk, 1677) *''Idea grammatikii musikiyskoy'' (''Идея грамматикии муcикийской'', "An idea of musical grammar", Moscow, 1679) *''Grammatika peniya musikiyskago'' (''Грамматика пения муcикийского'', Moscow, 1681)

Music

*3 settings of the Divine Liturgy (4–8 voices, includes "Kievan Chant" and a "Proportional" liturgy) *2 sacred concertos *Resurrection/Easter kanon, 8vvList of works taken from: "Mykola Dyletskiy: Sacred Works", Kiev Chamber Choir. 2003, Atlantik (Атлантик), CCK 11-2; CCK 11-3.

Notes

Sources

* * *Dytyniak Maria Ukrainian Composers – A Bio-bibliographic Guide – Research report No. 14, 1896, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta, Canada. {{DEFAULTSORT:Diletsky, Nikolay 1630s births 17th-century deaths Year of death unknown Ukrainian Baroque composers Classical composers of church music Russian classical composers Russian male classical composers Russian music theorists Ukrainian classical composers 17th-century classical composers Russian Baroque composers 17th-century male musicians