Solfge

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For the Fumi Yoshinaga manga, see Solfege (manga).
In music, solfge (French pronunciation: [sl.f]) or solfeggio (Italian
pronunciation: [sl.fddio]) (also called solfeo, sol-fa, solfedge, or solfa) is a singing
technique used to teach pitch. Solfge is usually taught during several years of undergraduate
university musical study. The goals are to train singers in sight reading and sight singing, to
give them more precise pitch, to improve recognition of musical intervals (perfect fifths,
minor sixths, etc.), and to strengthen their understanding of music theory. Solfge is a form
of solmization, and the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably.
The technique of solfge involves studying small sequences of notes (each note being sung to
a particular syllable) and singing the sequences in different keys. The sequences gradually get
more difficult in terms of intervals and rhythms used. The seven syllables commonly used for
this practice in English-speaking countries are: do (or doh in tonic sol-fa),
[1]
re, mi, fa, sol (so in tonic sol-fa), la, and ti/si. In other languages, si is used (see below) for
the seventh scale tone, while its earlier use in English continues in many areas.
There are two methods of applying solfege: fixed do, used mostly in Romance and Slavic
countries, and movable do, used mostly in Germanic country.
Contents
[hide]
1 Etymology
2 Origin
2.1 Alternative theories

3 Solmization in Elizabethan England

4 Modern use
o

4.1 Movable do solfge

4.2 Fixed do solfge

4.3 Comparison of the two systems

4.3.1 Chromatic variants

5 Note names
6 Cultural references
o

6.1 Songs

6.2 Literature

6.3 Colours assigned by Isaac Newton

7 See also
8 References
9 External links

Etymology[edit]
Italian "solfeggio" and French "solfge" ultimately derive from the names of two of the
syllables used: sol and fa.[2][3] 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 solfge).[4]
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,[5] taking in alternative series of syllables used in other
cultures such as India and Japan.
Origin[edit]
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.[6] The names were taken from the first verse of the Latin hymn Ut queant laxis, where
the syllables fall on their corresponding scale degree.
The words of the hymn (The Hymn of St. John) were written by Paulus Diaconus in the 8th
century. It translates[7] 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 1600 in Italy to the open syllable Do,[8] at the suggestion of the
musicologue Giovanni Battista Doni, and Si (from the initials for "Sancte

Iohannes"[dubious discuss]) was added to complete the diatonic scale. 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.[9] "Ti" is used in tonic sol-fa and in the song "Do-Re-Mi".
In England during the Elizabethan era a simplified version of this system (using only the
syllables "fa", "sol", "la" and "mi") was used (see below #Solmization in Elizabethan
England).
Alternative theories[edit]
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
Mufass alt
("Separated Pearls") (dl, r', mm, f', sd,

lm, t') during the Islamic

contributions to Medieval Europe. This origin theory was first proposed by Franois de
Mesgnien Meninski in 1680, and then by J. B. de Laborde in 1780.[10][11][12][13] Guillaume
Villoteau (Description historique, technique et litteraire des instruments de musique des
orientaux in the Description de l'gypte,[14] Paris 1809) appears to endorse this view.[citation
needed]
However, there is no documentary evidence for this theory.[15]
In all of Hindustani music and Carnatic music (two major branches of Indian classical
music), a form of solfge called swara or sargam is the first lesson. In Indian classical music
the corresponding sounds of solfege are sa, re (ri), ga, ma, pa, dha, ni and back to sa.
The Sanhita portion of the Samaveda (Hindu holy verses), that date back to 1300-1000 BCE
were later set to music using this technique. This is the earliest known origin of the solfge.
[citation needed]

Solmization in Elizabethan England[edit]

In the Elizabethan era, England and its related territories used only four of the syllables: mi,
fa, sol, and la. "Mi" stood for modern ti, "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, seeGuidonian hand). This system
was eventually eliminated by the 19th century, but it was (and usually still is) used in
the shape note system, 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[edit]

There are two main types of solfge:

1. Movable do, or tonic sol-fa, in which 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.
2. Fixed do, in which 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.
Movable do solfge[edit]
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

Lowered 1

# of half steps
Trad. Pron.
from Do

(-)1, 11

Sato
Method[16]

Sato
Pron.

De

/d/

Do

/do/

Do

/d/

Raised 1

Di

/di/

Di

/di/

Lowered 2

Ra

//

Ra

/r/

Re

/e/

Re

/r/

Raised 2

Ri

/i/

Ri

/ri/

Lowered 3

Me (or Ma)

/me/ (/m/
Me
)

/m/

Mi

/mi/

Mi

/mi/

Raised 3

Ma

/m/

Lowered 4

Fe

/f/

Fa

/f/

Fa

/f/

Raised 4

Fi

/fi/

Fi

/fi/

Lowered 5

Se

/se/

Se

/s/

Sol

/so/

So

/s/

Raised 5

Si

/si/

Si

/si/

Lowered 6

Le (or Lo)

/le/ (/lo/)

Le

/l/

La

/l/

La

/l/

Raised 6

Li

10

/li/

Li

/li/

Lowered 7

Te (or Ta)

10

/te/ (/t/)

Te

/t/

Ti

11

Raised 7

/ti/

12

Ti

/ti/

To

/t/

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, 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 which is
referred to as "do-based minor"), 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
(referred to as "la-based minor") is sometimes preferred in choral singing, especially with
children.
Natural minor scale Movable do solfge syllable (La- Movable do solfge syllable (Dodegree
based minor)
based minor)

La

Do

Raised 1

Li

Di

Lowered 2

Te (or Ta)

Ra

Ti

Re

Do

Me (or Ma)

Raised 3

Di

Mi

Re

Fa

Raised 4

Ri

Fi

Lowered 5

Me (or Ma)

Se

Mi

Sol

Fa

Le (or Lo)

Raised 6

Fi

La

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 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 fixeddo is more applicable to instrumentalists, movable-do is more applicable to theorists and,
arguably, composers.
Comparison of the two systems[edit]
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 fixeddo, 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 solfege 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 retranspose 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.
Chromatic variants[edit]
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:
Note names[edit]
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[edit]
Songs[edit]
- 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".
- 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.
Literature[edit]
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).