created a highly individual musical language using traditional forms and means, quite distinct from the Palestrinian polyphony adopted by the other composers of the time commonly regarded as "conservative." He also wrote secular music, both vocal and instrumental, including threnodies, dances, epithalamia, and numerous other occasional works. Most likely he wrote the poetry for his own music. As a music theoretician he is famous for compiling the first dictionary of musical terms in the German language. He also published a textbook for teaching music in school, Forma musices, in 1592, at Bautzen. References and further reading Walter Blankenburg, "Christoph Demantius". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. Walter Blankenburg/Dorothea Schröder: "Christoph Demantius", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed July 3, 2007), (subscription access) Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. Manfred Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1947. References External links 1567 births 1643 deaths 17th-century classical composers 17th-century Bohemian people German male classical composers Renaissance composers German music theorists German Baroque composers German classical composers Classical composers of church music People from the Kingdom of Bohemia People from the Electorate of Saxony German Bohemian people German people of German Bohemian descent Musicians from Liberec Writers from Liberec 17th-century male musicians