Nikolay Diletsky

A sample page from Idea grammatiki musikiyskoy (Moscow, 1679). Click image for details.

Little is known about Dyletsky's life. A remark by Ioannikii Trofimovich Korenev, a fellow theorist who describes him as a resident of Kyiv, is considered evidence of Dyletsky's Ukrainian origins. Korenev's statement is probably reliable, as he and Dyletsky apparently were well acquainted.[3] However, the date and even the year of birth are not known, and no details on Dyletsky's early life have surfaced. He must have moved to Vilnius 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[4] indicates that it was probably a panegyrical pamphlet.[5] Some sources indicate that he wrote at least one other musical treatise while in Vilnius, which is now lost:[6] 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, Dyletsky lived in Smolensk, where in 1677 the first surviving version of his magnum opus, Grammatika musikiyskago peniya ("A grammar of musical singing", a full title: «Грамматіка мусикійского пѢнія или извѢстная правила пѢния в слозѢ мусікійскомъ, в них же обрѢтаются шесть частей или раздѢлений»), 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 Dyletsky's life, and it is generally assumed that he died shortly afterwards. His date of birth is projected from this hypothesis.[7]

Circle of fifths in Idea grammatikii musikiyskoy (Moscow, 1679)

Although several of his compositions survive, Dyletsky's fame rests chiefly on his composition treatise, Grammatika musikiyskago peniya (A Grammar of Music[al 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.[8] 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", and the second teaches composition of a cappella concertos, a genre that came to Russia through Ukraine and of which Dyletsky was one of the first exponents.[8] Dyletsky 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,[9] 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, one that antedates Western examples by several decades.[10]

• Jensen, Claudia R. (1992). "A Theoretical Work of Late Seventeenth-Century Muscovy: Nikolai Diletskii's "Grammatika" and the Earliest Circle of Fifths". Journal of the American Musicological Society. University of California Press. 45 (2): 305–331. doi:10.2307/831450. JSTOR 831450.
• Jensen, Claudia R. (2001). "Nikolay Diletsky". Grove Music Online (8th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0. Retrieved 17 December 2006.
• Dytyniak Maria Ukrainian Composers – A Bio-bibliographic Guide – Research report No. 14, 1896, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta, Canada.