Solfge

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For similar terms, see Solfeggietto and Solfege (manga).

In music, solfge (/slf/,[1] also US /slf/, French: [sl.f]) or solfeggio (/slfdo/,

Italian: [solfeddo]), also called sol-fa, solfa, solfeo, among many names, is a music
education method used to teach pitch and sight singing of Western music. Solfge is a form
of solmization, and though the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably, the systems
used in other music cultures such as swara, durar mufaalt and Jianpu are discussed in
their respective articles.

Syllables are assigned to the notes of the scale and enable the musician to audiate, or
mentally hear, the pitches of a piece of music which he or she is seeing for the first time and
then to sing them aloud. Through the Renaissance (and much later in some shapenote
publications) various interlocking 4, 5 and 6-note systems were employed to cover the
octave. The tonic sol-fa method popularized the seven syllables commonly used in English-
speaking countries: do (or doh in tonic sol-fa),[2] re, mi, fa, so(l), la, and ti (or si, see below).

There are two current schools of applying solfge: 1) fixed do, where the syllables are always
tied to specific pitches (e.g. "do" is always "C-natural") and 2) movable do, where the
syllables are assigned to scale degrees ("do" is always the first degree of the major scale).

Contents
1 Etymology
2 Origin
3 In Elizabethan England
4 Modern use
o 4.1 Movable do solfge
4.1.1 Major
4.1.2 Minor
o 4.2 Fixed do solfge
4.2.1 Chromatic variants
o 4.3 Comparison of the two systems
5 Note names
6 Cultural references
o 6.1 Songs
o 6.2 Literature
o 6.3 Colours assigned by Isaac Newton
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

Etymology
Italian "solfeggio" and English/French "solfge" ultimately derive from the names of two of
the syllables used: sol and fa.[3][4] An alternative theory on the origins of solfge proposes that
it may have also had Arabic musical origins. It has been argued that the solfge syllables (do,
re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti) may have been derived from the syllables of the Arabic solmization
system Durar Mufaalt ("Separated Pearls") (dl, r', mm, f', d, lm, t')
during the Islamic contributions to Medieval Europe. This origin theory was first proposed by
Francisci a Mesgnien Meninski in 1680, and then by Jean-Benjamin de La Borde in
1780.[5][6][7][8] Guillaume Villoteau (Description historique, technique et litteraire des
instruments de musique des orientaux in the Description de l'gypte,[9] Paris 1809) appears to
endorse this view.[citation needed] However, there is no documentary evidence for this theory.[10]

The English equivalent of this expression, "sol-fa", is sometimes used, especially as a verb
(to "sol-fa" a passage is to sing it in solfge).[11]

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 "solfge",
but is technically a more generic term,[12] taking in alternative series of syllables used in other
cultures such as India and Japan.

Origin
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, la, and named the Aretinian syllables after
himself. A seventh note, "si" was added shortly after.[13] The names were taken from the first
verse of the Latin hymn Ut queant laxis, where the syllables fall on their corresponding scale
degree.

Sheet Music for Ut Queant Laxis

Ut queant laxs resonre fbrs

Mra gestrum famul turum,
Solve pollt labi retum,
Sancte Ihanns.

The words of the hymn (The Hymn of St. John) were written by Paulus Diaconus in the 8th
century. It translates[14] as:

So that these your servants can, with all their voice, sing your wonderful feats, clean the
blemish of our spotted lips, O Saint John!
"Ut" was changed in the 1600s in Italy to the open syllable Do,[15] at the suggestion of the
musicologue Giovanni Battista Doni, and Si (from the initials for "Sancte Iohannes") was
added to complete the diatonic scale. In Anglophone countries, "si" was changed to "ti" by
Sarah Glover in the nineteenth century so that every syllable might begin with a different
letter.[16] "Ti" is used in tonic sol-fa and in the song "Do-Re-Mi".

In Elizabethan England
In the Elizabethan era, England and its related territories used only four of the syllables: mi,
fa, sol, and la. "Mi" stood for modern si, "fa" for modern do or ut, "sol" for modern re, and
"la" for modern mi. Then, fa, sol and la would be repeated to also stand for their modern
counterparts, resulting in the scale being "fa, sol, la, fa, sol, la, mi, fa". The use of "fa", "sol"
and "la" for two positions in the scale is a leftover from the Guidonian system of so-called
"mutations" (i.e. changes of hexachord on a note, see Guidonian hand). This system was
eventually eliminated by the 19th century, but it was (and usually still is) used in some shape
note systems, which gives each of the four syllables "fa", "sol", "la", and "mi" a different
shape.

An example of the use of this type of solmization occurs in Shakespeare's, "King Lear", I, 2
(see below Literature).

Modern use
There are two main types of solfge Movable do and Fixed Do.

Movable do solfge

In Movable do, or tonic sol-fa, each syllable corresponds to a scale degree. This is analogous
to the Guidonian practice of giving each degree of the hexachord a solfge name, and is
mostly used in Germanic countries, Commonwealth Countries, and the United States.

One particularly important variant of movable do, but differing in some respects from the
system described below, was invented in the nineteenth century by Sarah Ann Glover, 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.

The pedagogical advantage of the movable-Do system is its ability to assist in the theoretical
understanding of music; because a tonic is established and then sung in comparison to, the
student infers melodic and chordal implications through his or her singing. Thus, while fixed-
do is more applicable to instrumentalists, movable-do is more applicable to theorists and,
arguably, composers.

Major

Movable do is frequently employed in Australia, China, Japan (with 7th being si), Ireland, the
United Kingdom, the United States, Hong Kong, and English-speaking Canada. The movable
do system is a fundamental element of the Kodaly method used primarily in Hungary, but
with a dedicated following worldwide. In the movable do system, each solfge 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 solfge 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 Mova. do solfge syllable # of half steps from Do Trad. Pron.
1 Do 0 /do/
Raised 1 Di 1 /di/
Lowered 2 Ra 1 //
2 Re 2 /e/
Raised 2 Ri 3 /i/
Lowered 3 Me (or Ma) 3 /me/ (/m/)
3 Mi 4 /mi/
4 Fa 5 /f/
Raised 4 Fi 6 /fi/
Lowered 5 Se 6 /se/
5 Sol 7 /so/
Raised 5 Si 8 /si/
Lowered 6 Le (or Lo) 8 /le/ (/lo/)
6 La 9 /l/
Raised 6 Li 10 /li/
Lowered 7 Te (or Ta) 10 /te/ (/t/)
7 Ti 11 /ti/

If, at a certain point, the key of a piece modulates, then it is necessary to change the solfge
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 major, then G is sung on
"do", A on "re", etc., and C is then sung on "fa".

Minor

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), which is referred to as "do-based minor", or
starting on la (using "fi" and "si" for the raised sixth and seventh degrees). The latter (referred
to as "la-based minor") is sometimes preferred in choral singing, especially with children.

The choice of which system is used for minor makes a difference as to how you handle
modulations. In the first case ("do-based minor"), when the key moves for example from C
major to C minor the syllable do keeps pointing to the same note, namely C, (there's no
"mutation" of do's note), but when the key shifts from C major to A minor (or A major), the
scale is transposed from do = C to do = A. In the second case ("la-based minor"), when the
key moves from C major to A minor the syllable do keeps point to the same note, again C,
but when the key moves from C major to C minor the scale is transposed from do = C to do =
E-flat.

Natural minor scale Movable do solfge syllable (La- Movable do solfge syllable (Do-
degree based minor) based minor)
Lowered 1 Le (or Lo) Ti
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
Lowered 4 Ra 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
Lowered 7 Se Ba
7 Sol Te (or Ta)
Raised 7 Si Ti

Fixed do solfge

The names of the notes in Romance languages.

In Fixed do, each syllable corresponds to the name of a note. This is analogous to the
Romance system naming pitches after the solfge syllables, and is used in Romance and
Slavic countries, among others, including Spanish speaking countries.

In the major Romance and Slavic languages, 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, solfge 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, Latin American countries and in French-speaking Canada as well as countries such
as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Russia, Serbia, Ukraine, Georgia, Bulgaria, Greece,
Albania, Macedonia, Mongolia, Iran, Taiwan, Middle east, Turkey, and Israel where non-
Romance languages are spoken.

Traditional fixed do[17]

Note name Syllable Pronunciation Pitch class
English Romance Italian Anglicized
C Do 11
C Do do /d/ /do/ 0
C Do 1

D Re 1
D Re re /r/ /e/ 2
D Re 3

E Mi 3
E Mi mi /mi/ /mi/ 4
E Mi 5

F Fa 4
F Fa fa /fa/ /f/ 5
F Fa 6

G Sol 6
G Sol sol /sl/ /sol/ 7
G Sol 8

A La 8
A La la /la/ /l/ 9
A La 10

B Si 10
B Si si /si/ /si/ 11
B Si 0

In the fixed do system, shown above, accidentals do not affect the syllables used. For
example, C, C, and C (as well as C and C , not shown above) are all sung with the
syllable "do".

Chromatic variants
Several chromatic fixed-do Systems that have also been devised to account for chromatic
notes (and even for double-sharp and double-flat variants) are as follows:

Chromatic variants of fixed do

Note name Syllable Pitch
English Romance Traditional 5 sharps / 5 flats Hullah Shearer Siler Sotorrio class
[17] [17][18][19] [20] [21] [22] [23]

C Do duf daw du (Pe) 10

C Do du de do (Tsi) 11
C Do do do do do da Do 0
C Do di da di de Ga 1
C Do das dai di (Ray) 2
D Re raf raw ru (Do) 0
D Re ra ra ra ro Ga 1
D Re re re re re ra Ray 2
D Re ri ri ri re Nu 3
D Re ris rai ri (Mi) 4
E Mi mef maw mu (Ray) 2
E Mi me me me mo Nu 3
E Mi mi mi mi mi ma Mi 4
E Mi mis mai me (Fa) 5
E Mi mish mi (Jur) 6
F Fa fof faw fu (Nu) 3
F Fa fo fe fo (Mi) 4
F Fa fa fa fa fa fa Fa 5
F Fa fi fe fi fe Jur 6
F Fa fes fai fi (Sol) 7
G Sol sulf saw su (Fa) 5
G Sol se sul se so Jur 6
G Sol sol sol sol so sa Sol 7
G Sol si sal si se Ki 8
G Sol sals sai si (La) 9
A La lof law lu (Sol) 7
A La le lo le lo Ki 8
A La la la la la la La 9
A La li le li le Pe 10
A La les lai li (Tsi) 11
 B Si sef taw tu (La) 9
B Si te se te to Pe 10
B Si si ti si ti ta Tsi 11
B Si sis tai te (Do) 0
B Si sish ti (Ga) 1
A dash ("") means that the source(s) did not specify a syllable.

Comparison of the two systems

Movable Do corresponds to our psychological experience of normal tunes. If the song is sung
a tone higher it is still perceived to be the same song, and the notes have the same
relationship to each other, but in a fixed Do all the note names would be different. A movable
Do emphasizes the musicality of the tune as the psychological perception of the notes is
always relative to a key for the vast majority of people that do not have absolute pitch.

Sotorrio[24] argues that fixed-do is preferable for serious musicians, as music involving
complex modulations and vague tonality is often too ambiguous with regard to key for any
movable system. That is, without a prior analysis of the music, any movable-do system would
inevitably need to be used like a fixed-do system anyway, thus causing confusion. With
fixed-do, the musician learns to regard any syllable as the tonic, which does not force them to
make an analysis as to which note is the tonic when ambiguity occurs. Instead, with fixed-do
the musician will already be practiced in thinking in multiple/undetermined tonalities using
the corresponding 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, some feel that 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.[25] Of course, this argument is only valid if the fixed do is used with
chromatic solfge syllables.

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
movable do to be the system more consistent with the way they learned to read music.
For choirs, sight-singing fixed do using chromatic movable do syllables (see below) 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.

Note names
In the countries with fixed-do, these seven syllables (with Si instead of Ti) are used to name
the notes of the C-Major 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, but its third movement is in
Si-bemol major.") In Germanic countries, the letters are used for this purpose, and the solfge
syllables are encountered only for their use in sight-singing and ear training. (They would
say, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is in "d-Moll" (D minor).)

Cultural references
Songs

The names of the notes may be heard in "Do-Re-Mi" from Rodgers and
Hammerstein's score for The Sound of Music, as well as the Robert Maxwell song
"Solfeggio". Maxwell's song inspired Ernie Kovacs to use it to create his unique
sketch, The Nairobi Trio.
Kurt Cobain, singer for the band Nirvana wrote a song called "Do Re Mi" which was
never finished but was released on the album With the Lights Out in 2004.
The names of the notes may be heard in "Scales and Arpeggios" from Disney's "The
Aristocats". 'Do, Mi, Sol, Do, Do, Sol, Mi, Do, if at first it seems as though it doesn't
show~'
Woody Guthrie wrote a song titled "Do Re Mi." The syllable Do was a stand-in for
"dough" (slang for "money"): "But believe it or not, you won't find it so hot/If you
ain't got the do re mi."
Philip Glass uses solfege for his vocal parts in his chamber ensemble, recognizably
for Music in 12 Parts and Einstein on the Beach.
In the Steven Universe episode, "It Could Have Been Great," Steven teaches Peridot
how to compose a song and sing in harmony by referring to the sol-fa names of each
note he plays on his ukulele.
Hawkwind's third studio album, released in 1972, was titled Doremi Fasol Latido.

Literature

In King Lear (Act 1, Scene 2) Edmund exclaims to himself right after Edgar's entrance so that
Edgar can hear him: "O, these eclipses do portend these divisions". Then in the 1623 First
Folio (but not in the 1608 Quarto) he adds "Fa, so, la, mi". This Edmund probably sang (see
Elizabethan solmisation) to the tune of Fa, So, La, Ti (e.g. F, G, A, B in C major), i.e. an
ascending sequence of three whole tones with an ominous feel to it: see tritone (historical
uses).

Colours assigned by Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton[citation needed] had associated the seven solfge syllables with the seven colours of
the rainbow and surmised that each colour vibrated accordingly (a concept possibly related to
the modern view of chromesthesia). Thus, red has the least amount of vibration while violet
vibrates the most.

Pitch Solfge Colour

C do (or doh in tonic sol-fa) Red
D re Orange
E mi Yellow
F fa Green
G sol (or so in tonic sol-fa) Blue
Indigo
A la
Blue Violet
Purple
B ti/si
Red Violet