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Solfege
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In music, solfège (, also called solfeggio, sol-fa, or solfa) is a pedagogical solmization technique for the teaching of sight-singing in which each note of the score is sung to a special syllable, called a solfège syllable (or "sol-fa syllable"). The seven syllables normally used for this practice in English-speaking countries are: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, and ti (with a chromatic scale of ascending di, ri, fi, si, li and descending te, le, se, me, ra).
Traditionally, solfège is taught in a series of exercises of gradually increasing difficulty, each of which is also known as a "solfège". By extension, the word "solfège" may be used of an instrumental étude.
Etymology French "solfège" and Italian "solfeggio" ultimately derive from the names of two of the syllables used: so[l] and fa. The English equivalent of this expression, "sol-fa", is also used, especially as a verb ("to sol-fa" a passage is to sing it in solfège).
The word "solmization" derives from the Medieval Latin "solmisatio", ultimately from the names of the syllables sol and mi. "Solmization" is often used synonymously with "solfège", but is technically a more generic term; i.e., solfège is one type of solmization (albeit a nearly universal one in Europe and the Americas).
The modern use of solfège There are two main types of solfège:
- Fixed do, in which each syllable corresponds to a note-name. This is analogous to the Romance system naming pitches after the solfège syllables, and is used in Romance and Slavic countries, among others.
- Movable do, or solfa, in which each syllable corresponds to a scale degree. This is analogous to the Guidonian practice of giving each degree of the hexachord a solfège name, and is mostly used in Germanic countries.
Movable do solfègeMovable do is frequently employed in Australia, Ireland, the UK, the USA and English-speaking Canada (although many American conservatories use French-style fixed do). Originally it was used throughout continental Europe as well, but in the mid-nineteenth century was phased out by fixed do. In this system, each solfège syllable corresponds not to a pitch, but to a degree of the scale: The first scale degree of a (major) scale is always sung as do, the second scale degree as re, etc. (For minor keys, see below.) In movable do, a given tune is therefore always sol-faed on the same syllables, no matter what key it is in.
The names used for movable do differ slightly from those used for fixed do, because chromatically altered syllables are usually included, and the English names of the syllables are usually used:
| Scale Degree | Solfège Name | Pronunciation |
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| 1 | Do | | | Raised 1 | Di | | | Lowered 2 | Ra | | | 2 | Re | | | Raised 2 | Ri | | | Lowered 3 | Me (or Ma) | | | 3 | Mi | | | 4 | Fa | | | Raised 4 | Fi | | | Lowered 5 | Se | | | 5 | So | | | Raised 5 | Si | | | Lowered 6 | Le (or Lo) | | | 6 | La | | | Raised 6 | Li | | | Lowered 7 | Te (or Ta) | | | 7 | Ti | |
If, at a certain point, the key of a piece modulates, then it is necessary to change the solfège names at that point as well. For example, if a piece is in C major, then C is sung on "do", D on "re", etc.. If, however, the piece then modulated to G, then G is sung on “Do”, A on “re”, etc., and C would now be sung on “fa".
Passages in a minor key may be sol-faed in one of two ways in movable do: either starting on do (using "me", "le", and "te" for the lowered third, sixth, and seventh degrees, and "la" and "ti" for the raised sixth and seventh degrees), or starting on la (using "fi" and "si" for the raised sixth and seventh degrees). The later is sometimes preferred in choral singing, especially with children.
One particularly important variant of movable do, but differing in some respects from the system here described, was invented in the nineteenth century by John Curwen, and is known as tonic sol-fa.
In Italy, in 1972, Roberto Goitre wrote the famous method "Cantar leggendo", which has come to be used for choruses and for music for young children.
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