User:Loevenguth

 Lead

It is intended to be a guide for composition and now it has become essential to writing music due to its design that is very helpful in composing and harmonizing melodies, building chords, and moving to different keys within a composition.

History

In 1679 a treatise called Grammatika was written by the composer and theorist Nikolai Diletskii. Diletskii’s Grammatika is a treatise on composition, the first of its kind, which targeted Western-style polyphonic compositions. It taught how to write kontserty, polyphonic a cappella, which were normally based on liturgical texts and were created by putting together musical sections that have contrasting rhythm, meters, melodic material and vocal groupings. Diletskii intended his treatise to be a guide to composition but pertaining to the rules of music theory. Within the Grammatika treatise is where the first circle of fifths appeared and was used for students as a composers tool. Using the circle of fifths Diletskii showed how a series of musical ideas could be expanded by the use of similar letters.