Solmization is a

mnemonic A mnemonic device ( ), memory trick or memory device is any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval in the human memory, often by associating the information with something that is easier to remember. It makes use of e ...

system in which a distinct

syllable A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...

is attributed to each note of a

musical scale In music theory, a scale is "any consecutive series of notes that form a progression between one note and its octave", typically by order of pitch or fundamental frequency. The word "scale" originates from the Latin ''scala'', which literal ...

. Various forms of solmization are in use and have been used throughout the world, but

solfège In music, solfège (British English or American English , ) or solfeggio (; ), also called sol-fa, solfa, solfeo, among many names, is a mnemonic used in teaching aural skills, Pitch (music), pitch and sight-reading of Western classical music, W ...

is the most common convention in countries of Western culture.

Overview

The seven syllables normally used for this practice in English-speaking countries are: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, and ti (with sharpened notes of di, ri, fi, si, li and flattened notes of ra, me, se, le, te). The system for other Western countries is similar, though si is often used as the final syllable rather than ti.

Guido of Arezzo Guido of Arezzo (; – after 1033) was an Italian music theorist and pedagogue of High medieval music. A Benedictine monk, he is regarded as the inventor—or by some, developer—of the modern Staff (music), staff notation that had a massive ...

is thought likely to have originated the modern Western system of solmization by introducing the ut–re–mi–fa–so–la syllables, which derived from the initial syllables of each of the first six half-lines of the first stanza of the

hymn A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' d ...

'' Ut queant laxis''. Giovanni Battista Doni is known for having changed the name of note "Ut" (C), renaming it "Do" (in the "Do Re Mi ..." sequence known as

). An alternative explanation, first proposed by Franciszek Meninski in ''Thesaurus Linguarum Orientalium'' (1680) and later by Jean-Benjamin de La Borde in ''Essai sur la Musique Ancienne et Moderne'' (1780), is that the syllables were derived from the Arabic solmization system درر مفصّلات ''Durar Mufaṣṣalāt'' ("Separated Pearls") (''dāl, rā', mīm, fā', ṣād, lām, tā) during the Middle Ages, but there is not any documentary evidence for it.

Byzantine music Byzantine music () originally consisted of the songs and hymns composed for the courtly and religious ceremonial of the Byzantine Empire and continued, after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, in the traditions of the sung Byzantine chant of East ...

uses syllables derived from the

Greek alphabet The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BC. It was derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and is the earliest known alphabetic script to systematically write vowels as wel ...

to name notes: starting with A, the notes are pa (alpha), vu (beta, pronounced v in modern greek), ga (gamma), di (delta), ke (epsilon), zo (zeta), ni (eta). In

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, the system known as Canntaireachd ("chanting"') was used as a means of communicating

bagpipe Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, No ...

music verbally.

Oriental systems

The

Svara Swara () or svara is an Indian classical music term that connotes simultaneously a breath, a vowel, a note, the sound of a musical note corresponding to its name, and the successive steps of the octave, or ''saptanka''. More comprehensively ...

solmization of India has origins in

Vedic texts upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas ( or ; ), sometimes collectively called the Veda, are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed i ...

like the

Upanishads The Upanishads (; , , ) are late Vedic and post-Vedic Sanskrit texts that "document the transition from the archaic ritualism of the Veda into new religious ideas and institutions" and the emergence of the central religious concepts of Hind ...

, which discuss a musical system of seven notes, realized ultimately in what is known as sargam. In

Indian classical music Indian classical music is the art music, classical music of the Indian subcontinent. It is generally described using terms like ''Shastriya Sangeet'' and ''Marg Sangeet''. It has two major traditions: the North Indian classical music known as ...

, the notes in order are: sa, re, ga, ma, pa, dha, and ni, which correspond to the Western solfege system. For

Han people The Han Chinese, alternatively the Han people, are an East Asian ethnic group native to Greater China. With a global population of over 1.4 billion, the Han Chinese are the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 17.5% of the worl ...

's music in China, the words used to name notes are (from fa to mi): 上 (siong or shàng), 尺 (cei or chǐ), 工 (gōng), 凡 (huan or fán), 六 (liuo or liù), 五 (ngou or wǔ), 乙 (yik or yǐ). The system is used for teaching sight-singing. For

Japanese music In Japan, music includes a wide array of distinct genres, both traditional and modern.ref> The word for "music" in Japanese language, Japanese is 音楽 (''ongaku''), combining the kanji 音 ''on'' (sound) with the kanji 楽 ''gaku'' (music, comf ...

, the first line of ''

Iroha The is a Japanese poem. Originally the poem was attributed to Kūkai, the founder of Shingon Buddhism, but more modern research has found the date of composition to be later in the Heian period (794–1179). The first record of its existence ...

'', an ancient poem used as a tutorial of traditional

kana are syllabary, syllabaries used to write Japanese phonology, Japanese phonological units, Mora (linguistics), morae. In current usage, ''kana'' most commonly refers to ''hiragana'' and ''katakana''. It can also refer to their ancestor , wh ...

, is used for solmization. The syllables representing the notes A, B, C, D, E, F, G are i, ro, ha, ni, ho, he, to respectively. Shakuhachi musical notation uses another solmization system beginning "Fu Ho U". Javanese musicians derive syllables from

numbers A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...

: ji-ro-lu-pat-ma-nem-pi. These names derive from one-syllable simplification of the Javanese numerals ''siji, loro, telu, papat, lima, enem, pitu''. ('' aat'' and ''pi u', corresponding to 4 and 7, are skipped in the

pentatonic A pentatonic scale is a Scale (music), musical scale with five Musical note, notes per octave, in contrast to heptatonic scales, which have seven notes per octave (such as the major scale and minor scale). Pentatonic scales were developed inde ...

slendro Slendro () is one of the essential tuning systems used in gamelan instruments that have pentatonic scale (music), scale. Based on Javanese people, Javanese mythology, the Slendro Gamelan tuning system is older than the ''pélog'' tuning system. ...

'' scale.)

References

{{Authority control Ear training Musical notation et:Silpnimetus

Overview

Oriental systems

See also

References