User:Gheuf/sandbox/solmisation

The term "solmization" is generally understood in France as the study of singing through the method of hexachords and mutations, as it was taught by Guido of Arezzo in the eleventh century. But in anglo-saxon countries, the words "solfege" and "solmization" are synonymous. They both refer to a system of giving names to musical notes.

The suggestion of Guido of Arezzo
The suggestion of Guido of Arezzo is to find methods to teach his young students to sing effectively. As a mnemonic device, he uses the first syllables of the hymn to Saint John the Baptist, from "Ut" to "La", to memorize the intervals of the corresponding hexachord.

This method is described for the first time in his letter to his friend Michael "Epistola de ignotu canto" ("Letter on an unknown chant") around 1028. It is characterized by the fact that a semi-tone can be sung only on the syllables "mi"-"fa".

Guido of Arezzo's idea knew an unprecedented success, although other syllables had been proposed. It considerably reduced the time it took to learn new chants.

Note-names
Reviving the Greek practice of naming notes after the letters of the alphabet, Boethius (6th century) in his "De institutione musica" designates the sounds of two octaves with the letters from A to P. The cantors of the High Middle Ages kept only the letters from A to G fro the first octave, then from a to g for the next higher octave, and finally from aa to gg for the third octave.

The series given by pseudo-Odo of Cluny (d. 942) in "dialogu de musica" contains only these three octaves, which were sufficient for the sung repertory of the period. To this he added a first note note a fifth lower than the first D, calling it Gamma, which is the source of the word "gamut". The letters C, F and G will eventually become the C, F and G clefs.

Starting from the second octave, this scale distinguishes between the square b and the round b, the round b being situated a semitone higher than a, while the square b is a whole tone higher.

The principle of solmization stems from the fact that a single note is designated both by a letter, in terms of its absolute pitch, and by a solmization syllable, which depends on the place of the note in the hexachord. The hexachord always has the semitone in its middle, where the syllables "mi" and 'fa" are placed. So any single note can be part of up to three different hexachords. It therefore became conventional to name notes by their letter followed by all the solmization syllables allowed for this letter. For example, C sol fa ut, D la sol re, E la mi, etc.

The three types of hexachord
Guido of Arezzo presented a scale of 21 notes called the gamut (from gamma ut, its starting note), which contains seven hexachords, two starting on G (called hexachordum durum, and using the square B (today, B natural)), three on C (called hexachordum naturale, from C to A, without any B), and two on F (called hexachordum molle, and using the round B (today, B flat).

It is not possible to position a hexachord (consisting of whole tone - whole tone - semitone - whole tone - whole tone) anywhere else without adding other sharps or flats.

This scale of 21 notes will be the didactic base of musical instruction until the end of the seventeenth century under the name of "scala decemlinealis" or general scale. It is represented by a ten-line staff.

The Guidonian hand
The method was accompanied by a visual aid of hexachords on one's hand; this is what was called the Guidonian hand, although Guido himself does not mention it in any of his known treatises.

Thanks to this method, it was easy to find what note was sung, and wha tsyllables could be said on that note. A choir director could easily show a group the notes to be sung without saying a word. Reference methods using the hand were in any case frequent in the Middle Ages.

Mutations and musica ficta
When a chant exceeds the tessitura of the hexachord, it becomes necessary to move from one hexachord to another, by means of a "mutation".

Starting with Ogier's treatise, Musica Enchiriadis (ninth century), sharps and flats, like E flat or F sharp, that are beyond the reach of the "Mutations" begin to be found. From the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, musicians were more and more constrained to leave behind the relatively simple framework of the Guidonian hand. In fact, as Yssando says, in order to improve the effect of the chant, the "pleasantness of the chant and the delight of the ears" rendered it necessary to use more hexachords than those anticipated by the hand; this allowed more half-steps to be introduced. This is what has been called musica ficta as opposed to musica recta.

The transition to tonality and the addition of si
In the sixteenth century and especially in the seventeenth, it becomes more and more difficult ot continue to follow the rules of the hexachords and mutations to perform the new pieces, which, more and more, require new theories. The modal system is progressively changing into a tonal system, goverened by other rules, and in which a sytem in which sung pitches are named on an extent of only six notes, requires improvement.

When the transition to the baroque era upsets all the rules of composition, the proposed systems for naming the notes multiply and for a long time cohabit in a certain confusion.

Singing just intervals, sensitivity to tuning
A thte turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the question of the tuning of the scale, raised by the ever-increasing use of keyboard instruments and of instrumental music, comes to the fore.

The ears of that time are very sensitive to the justness of intervals, as is shown by the keyboards with up to 31 keys per octave (Fabio Colonna in 1618) to take the difference between, e.g. G sharp and A flat into account.

In this context, the theory of hexachords allows for the singing of very just intervals, tuned according to the simple methods of division of the monochord, expounded in the eleventh century in the Micrologus of Guido of Arezzo.

It is not possible to perfectly tune a just octave and all the just fifths within this octave. The transition to theories of tonality and the gradual appearance of an instrumental music as important as vocal music will result in the gradual imposition of equal temperament. In this context, the intervals are all slightly false except for the octave; the addition of a seventh syllable to complete the octave and the abandonment of the just intervals specific to the hexachord will gradually establish itself.

Ease with transposition and fugues
The development, beginning in the fifteenth century, of imitative figures transposed at the fifth or the fourth goes along with the persistence of the hexachordal system, in which the theme could be sung with the same syllables before and after the transposition.

The avoidance of certain intervals
Finally, the use of solmiation allows the avoidance of intervals forbidden in the period, since the tritone does not exist in the hexachords, such as will subsequently exist between "fa" and "si". Additionally, the use of compositional rules, as easy to remember as "fa contra mi", allows the easy avoidance of pitfalls.

Simplification of the hexacords
Nevertheless, most arguments in favor of the survival of the hexachordal system cannot withstand the transition to the tonal system. More and more liberties are taken with a system thas has become too rigid.

Only two hexacords
In 1597, Thomas Morley, in A Plain & Easy Introduction to Practical Music, explains how the durum and molle hexachords are sufficient for singing anything, and how the naturale hexachord should be reserved for Gregorian music. Similarly, Gorg Rhau in 1538, Adrine Petit Coclico in 1552, Zarlino in 1573, and Mersenne in 1636 in his Harmonie universelle, to cite only a few examples, retain only two "hexachordal scales", the "scala b durali et naturalis" (B-flat scale) and the ""Scala b mollaris et naturalis" (or B-flat scale).

Abandonment of the syllables ut and ré : fasola
Thomas Morley advocates the abandonment of the syllable "ut". Bogenstants in Rudimenta utriusque cantus, in 1535, has already gone further, abandoning both "ut" and "re" except for the lowest hexachord. This practice will be the source of the fa-so-la, still used today for simple melodies.

Beginning on ut rather than on ré
L. Bourgeois, for his part, in Le droict Chemin de Musique, Genève 1550, challenges the custom of using a mutation on "re" ascending, but on "la" descending. He advocates a mutation on "ut", which favors the mode beginning on this syllable and which will be the source of the major scale.

Ut becomes do
In 1640, G. Doni suggests the syllable "do", easier to sing, to remplace "ut". Nevertheless the vowel "o" will do double-duty with the vowel "o" in the syllable "sol".

The hexachord in later treatises
The theory of the hexachord survives up to the sixteenth century in treatises. Nevertheless, in 1692, Carissimi in Ars cantandi gives a table of solmisation as a curiosity, characterizing it as a "useless headache."

Tomas de Santa Maria, in 1565 in a treatise on harmonie, insists that harpsichordists must know how to sing each voice with the solfege syllables. These recommendations are also given by Hortensio, the tutor of Bianca in Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew.

The first systems based on the octave
The adoption of the seventh syllable is begun in France during the time of Zarlino (middle of the sixteenth century) and in Germany in the second half of the seventeenth century. Nevertheless the first criticism of the six-syllable system of Guido of Arezzo and the first suggestion of seven other syllables date from the sixteenth century.

Faced with the great quantity of pronounced syllables, people ended up keeping the first six (with "do" replacing "ut" in the seventeenth century) and adding "si", which also comes from the Hymn to Saint John used by Guido of Arezzo (Sancte Ioannes). "Ho" was also used for B natural; it has persisted in Germany as the letter H, used to designate this note (which can be found in the motive B A C H).

Psal-li-tur per vo-ces is-tas
As early as 1482, Barolomé Ramos de Pareja, a Spanish theorist, violently expresses his disagreement with the custom since Guido d'Arezzo. He suggests the syllables "psa-li-tur per vo-ces is-tas" (which can be translated as "sung with these syllables"), where the "is" can be moved a whole step or half step higher than "ces".

What is interesting in this choice of syllables is that the consonants at the end of the syllables ("r" and "s") show where the half-steps fall. "Tur per" is always sung as a half-step, as are "is tas" and "ces is" (sometiems). Moreover, "tas" is sung one octave higher than "psa", and has the same vowel "a".

The invention of mnemonic devices of this sort is the source of a number of different important suggestions for syllables covering the octave.

bo ce di ga lo mi na (voces belgicae)
H. Waelrant (Anvers 1550) invents bocedization, which will also be called voces begicae and rediscovered and completed by Johannes Lippius around 1610. These scales follow two series of octaves, called cantus durus and cantus mollis.

lA Bi, Ce, De, mi, Fe, Ge
Daniel Hitzler (Stuttgart 1628) suggests syllables from the letters of the alphabet, with well-defined roles for the vowels: "e" is changed to "i" to show chromatic semitones. The chromatic scale is therefore sung: ce ci de di/me mi fe fi ge gi le be bi ce. In fact, the semitones chosen are those most often used (F sharp not G flat, C sharp and not D flat, for example).

do re mi fa sol la ni do
Otto Gibelius in 1659 suggests the same type of scale but based on the syllables from the hymn to Saint John, and in which the chromatic scale is sung: do di re ri/ma mi fa fi sol si/lo la na ni do.

Da me ni po tu la be
In the same spirit as Daniel Hitzler, C.H. Graun suggests damenization in 1750. The syllables as and es allow for lowering or elevation by semitone.

The French double scale
The French double scale was used at the end of the seventeenth century and consists of two scales based on the molle and durum hexachords, with a "si" added. It was not a great success, quickly replaced by methods with a simple scale.

It was described in the méthode facile pour apprendre à chanter en musique of Guillaume Gabriel Nivers, published in Paris in 1666.

In this system, when reading a "transposed" piece, that is with sharps and flats in the key signature, it was necessary to sing the last sharp in the signature as "si" and the last flat as "fa".

The figured scale, or Galinism
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, above all a philospher, was attached to the movable scale, by which the reader could tell what degree of the scale he was singing.

This theory was suggested again by Galin who gave it his name, in 1820, perfected by Paris and Chevé. This notation was abandoned in the face fo melodic and harmonic difficulties, but can still be very useful for the reading of a peace without any musical cultivation.

La construction dans la confusion
The transition to the theory of tonality is not made without difficulty, and many denominations cohabit without logic being always at the meeting. It can happen in a single phrase that one would use the solmisation syllables both to designate the absolute pitch of the note and its position in the scale. Three systems (hexachord with its improvements, movable solfege with all sorts of syllables or figures, and naming of notes by letters of the alphabet) cohabit and mix from the beginning of the seventeenth century to the middle of the eighteenth. With the appearance of the minor scale, it is confused with the mollis scale of the French double scale, and no one can decide on the syllable on which a minor scale ought to begin. If you take the first syllable that generates a minor third, you should begin on "re" and sing "si" a semitone higher than "la", but some advocate leaving "si" a whole step higher than "la", and so beginning the minor scale on "la". Finally, some think that the minor scale, like all scales, ought to begin on "do"...

This difficult cohabitation takes into account the difficulty of recognizing the key, especially since the use of key signatures is not necessarily established.

The two current systems in the Western world
La fin du XVIIIe siècle et le XIXe siècle voient se fixer deux solfèges différents : celui des pays anglo-saxons avec un do mobile et des syllabes permettant de distinguer les notes altérées, et le système français de do fixe qui abandonna petit à petit les lettres de l'alphabet qui désignait les notes.

The end fo the eighteenth century and the nineteenth century see two different solfeges establish themselves: one in the anglo-saxon countries with moveable do and syllables permitting sharps and flats to be distinguished, and one in France with fixed do which abandoned little by little the letters of the alphabet that designated the notes.

The birth of tonic sol-fa with Curwen
The Reverend John Curwen, having received the charge of teaching his young students to sing, took the example of the method of Sarah Glover (1785-1867), who had used a movable scale constructed on the syllables do re mi fa so la ti.

Curwen propagated this method largely in protestant milieux, especially in publishing The Standard Course of Lessons on the Tonic Sol-fa Method of Teaching to Sing for the first time in 1858. Curwen inventa des signes de la main pour signifier chaque note, comme il est encore en usage actuellement avec la méthode Kodaly.

Curwen invented hand signs to signify each note, as is still currently used in the Kodaly method.

La naissance de solfège fixe avec le conservatoire en France
The French double scale or "si method" seems to the source, in the eighteenth century, of French originality.

In 1696, Etienne Loulié explains how a simple scale could further simplify the principle of the double scale, by deleting "the paths and voices of B-flat", which made up the second column in the double scale.

In 1798, the Conservatory of music replaces the religious masters for the teaching of music, under the orders of Bonaparte. The elementary principles of music decreed by the Members of the Conservatory to serve in the study of this establishment, followed by Solfeges by the Cens. Agus, Catel, Chérubini, Gossec, Langlé, Lesueur, Méhul and Rigel is based exclusively on a fixed solfege using the solmization syllables "do re mi fa sol la si do". While the transposing methods were still successful for teaching beginners and singers, in the Conservatory, the method was also used with success for more advanced students and instrumentalists.

The two current schools
Today, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia follow the French example whereby the solfege syllables designate the name of the notes. This is the system of fixed do.

In other countries, and particularly in Hungary with the Kodaly method, a system called "movable do" is used.

Tonic sol-fa was made popular by the reverend Curwen in the 19th century. It is particularly well-adapted to Protestant hymns. It is also known under the name of "movable doh" in English, and has been adapted in German under the name of tonika-Do method.

The syllables always correspond to the same degrees of the scale, and the different scales are sung:

In this table, it was decide to begin the minor scale on "do", but it is equally possible to begin on "la".

Besides the German system, there is a parallel fixed system using the letters of the alphabet, but with variants to express the sharps and flats.

In Hungary, the Kodaly method also uses the method of movable do.

The various advantages and disadvantages of the two methods
Hors de France, il existe toujours des enseignants et des élèves se demandant quelle est la meilleure méthode pour déchiffrer une partition : do fixe ou do mobile, ou encore méthode chiffrée. Chacune des méthodes a ses avantages et ses inconvénients.

Outside of France, there are still teachers and students wondering which is the better method for decoding a score: fixed do or movable do, or a figured method? Each of the methods has its advantages and its disadvantages.

Number method
This is similar to movable do, but with syllables corresponding to the number of the scale degree rather than the usual solfege syllables.

This method is very easy to learn, because it is limited to the seven figures which everyone already knows. It allows for the instant recognition of what scale degree you are on, and of what harmonic function it plays, in the framework of tonal music without accidentals.

However, the syllables are not necessarily well adapted to singing. In certain languages, several syllables (such as in "seven") must be contracted onto just one note and that can present rhythmical problems.

Moreover, there are no specific syllables for the accidentals, which necessitates the use of "4 sharp" or "7 flat". Finally, since this method is a variant of movable do, it has the same disadvantages relative to the difficulty of knowing where to place the figure "1".

Movable do
The methods using movable do have introduced syllables for the accidentals which require some mental gymnastics, because the singer must choise between 17 syllables, as against the 7 of fixed do.

Choosing where the scale starts and where to sing "do" is not always easy, and it is difficult, at a modulation, to know exactly when to change the orientation of "do". This can become very difficult indeed in music with a lot of borrowing, chromaticism, enharmonics....

The method of mvoable do becomes almost impracticable for singing atonal music, where the tonality is not strongly affirmed.

The advantages of these methods are the same as those of the solmization of Guido of Arezzo: the intervals and the positions of the half-steps can easily be remembered, and the harmonic roles of the notes can be easily determined (for example "fa" is always the fourth degree of the scale)

Fixed do
The fixed-do method can be used, as in France, with only seven sylalbles, which in the first stage complicates the ear-work of placing the half-steps, because an F-sharp is sung on the same syllable as an F-natural ("fa").

It is also possible to sing the names of the notes in their letter forms (A, B...) and possible, as well, in the framework of fixed do, to sing syllables that differentiate between accidentals.

This type of solfege is perfectly adapted to every type of music, because it is not necessary to know the key. It allows for the easy discovery of aptitudes due to perfect pitch.

It is regrettable, however, that in France this method, using the syllables "do re mi", etc, has both eliminated the culture of notes named by letters, and complicated the possibility of a movable-do method, since it is confusing to switch from one method to the other while continuing to use the same syllables in different senses.