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Solfge
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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
2
3
4

5
6

7
8
9

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

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Etymology
Italian "solfeggio" and English/French "solfge" ultimately derive from the names of two of the
syllables used: sol and fa.[3][4] 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).[5]
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,[6] 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.[7] The names were taken from the first verse of the Latin
hymn Ut queant laxis, where the syllables fall on their corresponding scale degree.
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[8] as:
Sheet Music for Ut Queant Laxis

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,[9] 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.[10] "Ti" is used in
tonic sol-fa and in the song "Do-Re-Mi".

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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

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"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

/do/

Raised 1

Di

/di/

Lowered 2

Ra

//

Re

/e/

Raised 2

Ri

/i/

Lowered 3

Me (or Ma)

/me/ (/m/)

Mi

/mi/

Fa

/f/

Raised 4

Fi

/fi/

Lowered 5

Se

/se/

Sol

/so/

Raised 5

Si

/si/

Lowered 6

Le (or Lo)

/le/ (/lo/)

La

/l/

Raised 6

Li

10

/li/

Lowered 7

Te (or Ta)

10

/te/ (/t/)

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

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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
degree

Movable do solfge syllable


(La-based minor)

Movable do solfge syllable


(Do-based minor)

Lowered 1

Le (or Lo)

Ti

La

Do

Raised 1

Li

Di

Lowered 2

Te (or Ta)

Ra

Ti

Re

Do

Me (or Ma)

Raised 3

Di

Mi

Lowered 4

Ra

Mi

Re

Fa

Raised 4

Ri

Fi

Lowered 5

Me (or Ma)

Se

Mi

Sol

Fa

Le (or Lo)

Raised 6

Fi

La

Lowered 7

Se

Ba

Sol

Te (or Ta)

Raised 7

Si

Ti

Fixed do solfge
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

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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, Lebanon, Turkey, and Israel where
non-Romance languages are spoken.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solfge#Fixed_do_solf.C3.A8ge

The names of the notes in Romance


languages.

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Note name

Traditional fixed do[11]


Syllable Pronunciation

English Romance

Pitch class

Italian Anglicized
11

Do

Do

Do

Re

Re

Re

Mi

Mi

Mi

Fa

Fa

Fa

Sol

Sol

Sol

La

La

La

10

Si

10

Si

Si

do

re

mi

fa

sol

la

si

/d/

/r/

/mi/

/fa/

/sl/

/la/

/si/

/do/

/e/

/mi/

/f/

/sol/

/l/

/si/

11
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:

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Chromatic variants of fixed do


Syllable

Note name

Pitch class

English Romance Traditional 5 sharps / 5 flats Hullah Shearer Siler Sotorrio


[11]

[11][12][13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

Do

duf

daw

du

(Pe)

10

Do

du

de

do

(Tsi)

11

Do

do

do

do

da

Do

Do

di

da

di

de

Ga

Do

das

dai

di

(Ray)

Re

raf

raw

ru

(Do)

Re

ra

ra

ra

ro

Ga

Re

re

re

re

ra

Ray

Re

ri

ri

ri

re

Nu

Re

ris

rai

ri

(Mi)

Mi

mef

maw

mu

(Ray)

Mi

me

me

me

mo

Nu

Mi

mi

mi

mi

ma

Mi

Mi

mis

mai

me

(Fa)

Mi

mish

mi

(Jur)

Fa

fof

faw

fu

(Nu)

Fa

fo

fe

fo

(Mi)

Fa

fa

fa

fa

fa

Fa

Fa

fi

fe

fi

fe

Jur

Fa

fes

fai

fi

(Sol)

Sol

sulf

saw

su

(Fa)

Sol

se

sul

se

so

Jur

Sol

sol

sol

so

sa

Sol

Sol

si

sal

si

se

Ki

Sol

sals

sai

si

(La)

La

lof

law

lu

(Sol)

do

re

mi

fa

sol

la

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La

le

lo

le

lo

Ki

La

la

la

la

la

La

La

li

le

li

le

Pe

10

La

les

lai

li

(Tsi)

11

Si

sef

taw

tu

(La)

Si

te

se

te

to

Pe

10

Si

ti

si

ti

ta

Tsi

11

Si

sis

tai

te

(Do)

Si

sish

ti

(Ga)

si

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[18] 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.[19] 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

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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, Me, So, Do, Do, So, Me, 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

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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 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

do (or doh in tonic sol-fa) Red

re

Orange

mi

Yellow

fa

Green

sol (or so in tonic sol-fa) Blue

la

ti/si

Indigo
Blue Violet
Purple
Red Violet

See also
Key signature names and translations
Numbered musical notation
Ear training
Hexachord
Kodly Method
Solmisation, describing similar systems in other cultures
Solresol, a constructed language that had the solfge notes as syllables and could be sung or
played as well as spoken.

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Shape note
Vocable

References
1. "solfge (BrE)". Oxford Dictionaries.
2. Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Ed.(1998)
3. "Solfeggio". Merriam-Webster Online
Dictionary. Merriam-Webster Online.
Retrieved 2010-02-27.
4. "Solfge". Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.
Merriam-Webster Online. Retrieved
2010-02-27.
5. "Sol-fa". Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.
Merriam-Webster Online. Retrieved
2010-02-27.
6. "Solmization". Merriam-Webster Online
Dictionary. Merriam-Webster Online.
Retrieved 2010-02-27.
7. Davies, Norman (1997), Europe, pp.271-2
8. Cgregorian chant - Translation & scores for
diverse festivities (http://interletras.com
/canticum/Eng/translation_various.html)
9. McNaught, W. G. (1893). "The History and
Uses of the Sol-fa Syllables". Proceedings of
the Musical Association. London: Novello,
Ewer and Co. 19: 3551. ISSN 0958-8442.
Retrieved 2010-02-26.
10. This also freed up Si for later use as Sol-sharp
11. Demorest, Steven M. (2001). Building Choral
Excellence: Teaching Sight-Singing in the
Choral Rehearsal. New York: Oxford
University Press. p. 46.
ISBN 978-0-19-512462-0.
12. Benjamin, Thomas; Horvit, Michael; Nelson,
Robert (2005). Music for Sight Singing (4th
ed.). Belmont, CA: Thompson Schirmer.
pp. xxi. ISBN 978-0-534-62802-4.

13. White, John D. (2002). Guidelines for College


Teaching of Music Theory (2nd ed.). Lanham,
MD: Scarecrow Press. p. 34.
ISBN 978-0-8108-4129-1.
14. Hullah, John (1880). Hullah's Method of
Teaching Singing (2nd ed.). London:
Longmans, Green and Co. pp. xixv.
ISBN 0-86314-042-4.
15. Shearer, Aaron (1990). Learning the Classical
Guitar, Part 2: Reading and Memorizing
Music. Pacific, MO: Mel Bay. p. 209.
ISBN 978-0-87166-855-4.
16. Siler, H. (1956). "Toward an International
Solfeggio". Journal of Research in Music
Education. 4 (1): 4043. doi:10.2307/3343838.
JSTOR 3343838.
17. Sotorrio, Jos A (2002). Tone Spectra -and the
Natural Elements of Music. (1st Ed) Spectral
Music, 2002. (Presents a simple 12-tone
Solfge: Do (Ga) Re (Nu) Mi Fa (Jer) Sol (Ki)
La (Pe) and Tsi, a written compromise between
"Ti" and "si".]
18. Sotorrio, Jos A (2002). Tone Spectra -and the
Natural Elements of Music. (1st Ed) Spectral
Music, 2002.
19. Humphries, Lee. Learning to Sight-Sing: The
Mental Mechanics of Aural Imagery.
(http://www.thinkingapplied.com/sightsinging_folder/sight-singing.pdf) Minneapolis:
Thinking Applied, 2008, No. 1.

External links
History of Notation (http://www.neilhawes.com/sstheory
/theory22.htm) by Neil V. Hawes
Various scales with their solfge names and associated
hand signs (http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary

Wikimedia Commons
has media related to
Solfege.

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/appendix/scales/solmization/syllables.html)
Look up solfge in
A search engine for melodies that uses solfge
Wiktionary, the free
(https://web.archive.org/web/20080611064132/http:
dictionary.
//www.everity.com/~gheller)
An online music notation editor for Sargam (the Indian Solfge), ABC, and numbered
notation, the Indian solfge (http://ragapedia.com/)
Music theory online: key signatures and accidentals (http://www.dolmetsch.com
/musictheory9.htm#notesandkeys)
Music theory online : staffs, clefs & pitch notation (http://www.dolmetsch.com
/musictheory1.htm#francobelgic)
GNU Solfge, a free software program to study solfeggio (http://www.solfege.org/)
Eyes and Ears, an anthology of melodies for practicing sight-singing, available under a
Creative Commons license (http://www.lightandmatter.com/sight/sight.html)
The advantages of movable do over fixed do (http://www.michaelkaulkin.com/movabledo-in-classroom-ear-training/)
theSightReadingProject: an interactive database of sight-reading materials (utilizes movable
do, la minor) (http://thesightreadingproject.com/)
Origin of Do Re Mi singing system 900 AD (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/2007
/issue93/4.39.html)
"Colours are sounds: How to See the Music" (http://creativelab.org.ua/eng/index_eng.htm),
Creativelab. The method for transformation of music into an image.
What Is Solfge Singing? (http://www.harmonyroadmusic.com/blog/what-is-solfege-singing/)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Solfge&oldid=760542055"
Categories: Musical notation Constructed languages
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