Mykola Dyletsky
COMPOSERS
Composer, theoretician, choral conductor and pedagogue, one of the first figures of Ukrainian musical life of his time.
MYKOLA DYLETSKY (1630 (?), Kyiv – 1690 (?), Moscow), composer, theorist, choral conductor and pedagogue, one of the first figures of Ukrainian musical life of his time. He studied at the Jesuit Academy in Vilnius. He also spent time in Krakow, Smolensk, Moscow and St. Petersburg. His most important work, “Musical Grammar,” contains the principles of so-called partesian singing – multi-voiced choral music that replaced the old tradition of monodic singing in the 16th century.
The “Grammar” also gives the basic principles of Baroque musical aesthetics, describing in particular the expressive possibilities of figure and affect theory. Dylecki is the author of compositions based on liturgical texts – the 8-voice Easter Canon, the 4-voice and 8-voice Mass, parts of the Mass, canticles, psalms, as well as didactic compositions – the Three-Voice Prayers, the Four-Voice Prayers.