Solmization
A method of learning to sing by the application of syllables to the scale.
The earliest invention of this method of fixing the succession of sounds forming the scale in the memory is attributed to Guido of Arezzo (ah-rets-o), who used for this purpose the syllables ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, having chanced to observe that these syllables-the first in the successive lines of a Latin hymn - were sung to six successive notes which formed a hexachord scale: C, D, E, F, G, A. There were seven hexachord scales, as follows: First began on G, Ist line bass staff; this was called the hexachordum durum (hard hexachord). Second began on C, a 4th higher. Third began on F, another 4th higher; in this scale B was flat; it was called the hexachordum molle (soft hexachord). Fourth, fifth, and sixth were respectively an octave higher than the first, second, and third, and the seventh was two octaves higher than the first. The first note of every scale was called ut (afterward changed to do), therefore from its inception "do" was "movable." Various modifications of these syllables have at different times been used for solmization.
One extensively used at one time was the practice of using only four of them, viz., mi, fa, sol, la. These were so arranged that mi always fell upon the third note in the tetrachord, for example, the scale of C was solfaed thus : - Tetrachord. Tetrachord.
CDEFGABC sol la mi fa sol la mi fa It was owing to the difficulty and, to ancient ears, harshness of the skip from the Smith, Sidney. Composer, pianist; England. B. 1839; d. 1889.