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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".
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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. Solfege is taught at many conservatories of music. For example, in the 1960s The Juilliard School hired the now late, well-known solfege expert Renee Longy to teach solfege to many instrumentalists and singers.
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.).
Origin of the solfège syllables
The use of a seven-note diatonic musical scale is ancient, though originally it was played in descending order.
In the eleventh century, the music theorist Guido of Arezzo developed a six-note ascending scale that went as follows: ut, re, mi, fa, sol, and la. A seventh note, "si" was added shortly after. The notes were taken from the first verse of a Latin hymn below (where the sounds fell on the scale), and later "ut" and "sol" were changed to flow with the other notes, while "si" was changed to "ti" to avoid confusion with "sol".
Ut queant laxis resonare fibris
Mira gestorum famuli tuorum,
Solve polluti labii reatum,
Sancte Iohannes.
The hymn (The Hymn of St. John) was written by Paulus Diaconus in the 8th century. It translates as:
So that these your servants can, with all their voice, to sing your wonderful feats, clean the blemish of our spotted lips. O Saint John!
An alternative theory on the origins of solfège proposes that it may have also had Arabic musical origins. It has been argued that the solfège syllables (do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti) may have been derived from the syllables of the Arabic solmization system Durr-i-Mufassal ("Separated Pearls") (dal, ra, mim, fa, sad, lam) during the Islamic contributions to Medieval Europe. This origin theory was first proposed by Meninski in his Thesaurus Linguarum Orientalum (1680) and then by Laborde in his Essai sur la Musique Ancienne et Moderne (1780).
Descending scales
The descending major (diatonic) scale:
- high doh ('Do) High Doh' (The apostrophe indicates high Doh)
- tee (Ti) Tee - "The Piercing Tone"
- lah (La) Lah - "The Sad Tone"
- soh (Sol) Soh - "The Bright Tone"
- fah (Fa) Fah - "The Desolate Tone"
- mee (Mi) Mee - "The Calm Tone"
- ray (Re) Ray - "The Hopeful Tone"
- doh (Do) Doh - "The Strong Tone"
The descending chromatic scale:
- Hi doh (Do) Doh'
- tee (Ti) Tee
- tay (Te) Tay
- lah (La) Lah
- lay (Le) Lay
- soh (Sol) Soh
- say (Se) Say
- fah (Fa) Fah
- mee (Mi) Mee
- may (Me) May
- ray (Re) Ray
- rah (Ra) Rah
- doh (Do) Doh
The ascending chromatic scale:
- Hi doh (Do) Doh'
- tee (Ti) Tee
- lee (Li) Lee
- lah (La) Lah
- see (Si) See
- soh (Sol) Soh
- fee (Fi) Fee
- fah (Fa) Fah
- mee (Mi) Mee
- ree (Ri) Ree
- ray (Re) Ray
- dee (Di) Dee
- doh (Do) Doh
French scholars Laborde and Villoteau suggest that Guido of Arezzo was himself influenced by Muslim musical notation.
Table showing similarity between musical notes and the Arabic alphabet. | Arabic letters | ?? mim | ?? fa' | ? ?ad | ?? lam | ?? sin | ?? dal | ?? ra' |
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| Musical Notes | mi | fa | sol | la | si | do | re |
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In the Romance countries of Europe, Latin America and Japan, these seven syllables have come to be used to name the notes of the scale, instead of the letters C, D, E, F, G, A and B. (For example, they would say, "Beethoven's ninth symphony is in Re minor".) In Germanic countries, the letters are used for this purpose, and the solfège syllables are encountered only for their use in sight-singing and ear training. (They would say, "Beethoven's ninth symphony is in D minor".)
In Anglo-Saxon countries, "si" was changed to "ti" by Sarah Glover in the nineteenth century so that every syllable might begin with a different letter. "Ti" is used in tonic sol-fa and in the song "Do-Re-Mi".
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.
Fixed do solfège
In the major Romance languages (Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian), the syllables Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, and Si are used to name notes the same way that the letters C, D, E, F, G, A, and B are used to name notes in English. For native speakers of these languages, solfège is simply singing the names of the notes, omitting any modifiers such as 'sharp' or 'flat' in order to preserve the rhythm. This system is called fixed do and is used in Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Belgium, Romania and Latin American countries, as well as countries such as Russia, Serbia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Greece, Iran and Japan where non-Romance languages are spoken.
| Note name (English) | Note name (Romance languages) | Fixed do solfège syllable | Pronunciation |
|---|
| C | Do, Ut (French) | do | | | C | | | D | | re | | | D | Re | | D | | | E | | mi | | | E | Mi | | F | Fa | fa | | | F | | | G | | sol | | | G | Sol | | G | | | A | | la | | | A | La | | A | | | B | | si | | | B | Si |
The pattern shown above also applies to the less common sharps and flats (E, B, C, F) and to the double-sharps and double-flats: Accidentals do not affect the syllables used. There are no altered syllables.
In comparison to the movable do system, which draws on short-term relative pitch skills involving comparison to a pitch identified as the tonic of the particular piece being performed, fixed do develops long-term relative pitch skills involving comparison to a pitch defined independently of its role in the piece, a practice closer to the definition of each note in absolute terms as found in absolute pitch. The question of which system to use is a controversial subject among music educators in schools in the United States. While movable do is easier to teach and learn, fixed do leads to stronger sight-reading and better ear training because students learn the relationships between specific pitches as defined independently, rather than only the function of intervals within melodic lines, chords, and chord progressions.
If a performer has been trained using fixed do, particularly in those rare cases in which the performer has absolute pitch or well-developed long-term relative pitch, the performer may have difficulty playing music scored for transposing instruments: Because the "concert pitch" note to be performed differs from the note written in the sheet music, the performer may experience cognitive dissonance when having to read one note and play another. Especially in the early stages of learning a piece, when the performer has yet to gain familiarity with the melodic line of the piece as expressed in relative terms, he or she may have to mentally re-transpose the sheet music in order to restore the notes to concert pitch.
Instrumentalists who begin sight-singing for the first time in college as music majors find fixed do to be the system more consistent with the way they learned to read music.
For choirs, sight-singing fixed do is more suitable than sight-singing movable do for reading atonal music, polytonal music, pandiatonic music, music that modulates or changes key often, or music in which the composer simply did not bother to write a key signature. It is not uncommon for this to be the case in modern or contemporary choral works. Choirs that have learned to read fixed do will have an advantage in reading music by composers such as Arnold Schoenberg, Eric Whitacre, or Ivan Hrušovský more easily and fluently than otherwise.
Movable do solfège
Movable 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 Romance countries. In Germany Agnes Hundoegger reintroduced it using the Curwen system which she got to know when visiting his courses.
In the movable do system, each solfège syllable corresponds not to a pitch, but to a scale degree: The first degree of a major scale is always sung as 'do', the second 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 solfège syllables used for movable do differ slightly from those used for fixed do, because the English variant of the basic syllables ('ti' instead of 'si') is usually used, and chromatically altered syllables are usually included as well:
| Major scale degree | Movable do solfège syllable | Pronunciation |
|---|
| 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 | Sol | | | 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 syllables at that point. For example, if a piece begins in C major, then C is initially sung on "do", D on "re", etc.. If, however, the piece then modulates to G, then G is sung on “Do”, A on “re”, etc., and C is then 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 latter is sometimes preferred in choral singing, especially with children.
| Natural minor scale degree | Movable do solfège syllable (La-based minor) | Movable do solfège syllable (Do-based minor) |
|---|
| 1 | La | Do | | Raised 1 | Li | Di | | Lowered 2 | Te (or Ta) | Ra | | 2 | Ti | Re | | 3 | Do | Me (or Ma) | | Raised 3 | Di | Mi | | 4 | Re | Fa | | Raised 4 | Ri | Fi | | Lowered 5 | Me (or Ma) | Se | | 5 | Mi | Sol | | 6 | Fa | Le (or Lo) | | Raised 6 | Fi | La | | 7 | Sol | Te (or Ta) | | Raised 7 | Si | Ti |
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.
See also
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