Diletskii, Nikolai

Diletskii, Nikolai Pavlovich 

Born circa 1630 in Kiev; died circa 1690 in Moscow. Ukrainian composer and teacher. From 1678 precentor of the G. D. Stroganov choir in Moscow. Author of Musical Grammar, a treatise on music theory (1675, in Polish; 1667, in Old Church Slavonic); a Russian translation from Polish appeared in 1679. The version of 1681 was published by S. V. Smolenskii as The Musical Grammar by Nikolai Diletskii (1910).

In his treatise Diletskii elaborated the theoretical principles of contrapuntal singing; the treatise served as a guide to many Russian composers of the 17th and 18th centuries. Influenced by Diletskii, a Russian school of composers of polyphonic church music for voices developed in Moscow.

REFERENCES

Keldysh, Iu. V. Russkaia muzyka XVIII veka. Moscow, 1965. Pages 50-57.
Keldysh, Iu. V. “Neskol’ko soobrazhenii o Diletskom.” Sovetskaia muzyka, 1968, no. 9, pp. 107-12.
Lehmann, D. “Mikolaj Dylecki a muzyka polska w XVIII wieku.” Muzyka, 1965, no. 3 (38).