table 1
F
Jo
to-
E
ri
D
ete
nes
me
C
San
han
The use of syllables in association with pitches as a mnemonic device for indicating melodic intervals. Such syllables are, musically speaking, arbitrary in their selection, but are put into a conventionalized order (such as kung–shang–chiao–chueh–yü; ding–dong–dèng–dung–dang; ut–re–mi–fa–sol–la). Many systems of this sort exist in the principal musical cultures of the world; they serve as aids in the oral transmission of music, and may be used either for direct teaching or as a means of memorizing what has been heard. A solmization system is not a notation: it is a method of aural rather than visual recognition (see Notation, §I, 2, and Tonic Sol-fa).
I. European medieval and Renaissance systems
II. Ancient and non-European systems
ANDREW HUGHES (I), EDITH GERSON-KIWI (II)
2. The three basic hexachords.
4. Expansion of the hexachord system.
5. Renaissance modifications of the system.
Solmization, §I: European medieval and Renaissance systems
In the West, the practice was known in classical antiquity (see §II below), but that system was apparently not transmitted to the Latin Middle Ages. The earliest similar system to appear in medieval theory was that involving the noeagis type of formula, first used about the 9th century, which seems to indicate the precise psalm terminatio that should be sung. Even this system was local and relatively short-lived. Only in the early 11th century was the system that survived into modern Western use first recorded, and this is traditionally associated with Guido of Arezzo (early 11th century), together with the Guidonian hand on which the syllables are placed.
Neither the system nor the hand is explained in any of Guido’s extant writings, and only later theorists and commentators attribute the practice to Guido. Nevertheless, in view of his known interest in practical and pedagogical methods, his authorship or adoption of the system may be accepted as likely. The method is based on the text and tune of the hymn Ut queant laxis. Frequently at that time, in order to indicate the melody of such texts, their syllables were ‘heighted’ as shown in Table 1 (ed. Smits van Waesberghe, 1955, p.189). Possibly because of this procedure, a peculiar feature of the Ut queant melody was either recognized or deliberately so arranged. The first syllables of the opening six lines of the hymn are ut re mi fa sol la, using all five vowels and six different consonants. The coincidence of these alphabetic features with the stepwise rise from C to A of the pitches sung to the syllables has led some scholars to suggest that Guido composed the tune deliberately in this way. The text can be traced to the 9th century, but the tune now associated with it cannot be found before Guido’s time. Smits van Waesberghe has found other texts linked with the tune. One of these gives the syllables tu rex mi fons sol laus, another the series tri pro de nos te ad. The latter set, which recurs occasionally in later theorists such as Theinred of Dover and Ramis de Pareia, and somewhat changed in Jacobus of Liège, has been partly explained by some scholars as denoting the modes PROtus–DEuterus–TRItus–TEtrardus associated with the pitches D–E–F(transposed to C)–G, so that the same series C–A is given; this explanation seems unconvincing in view of the text discovered by Smits van Waesberghe. The tri pro syllables, which obviously had some success in the Middle Ages, probably account for the statement of Johannes Afflighemensis, about 1100, that ‘there are six syllables … the English, French and Germans use ut re … the Italians have others’ (ed. Smits van Waesberghe, 1950, p.49).
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table 1 |
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F |
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Jo |
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to- |
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E |
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ri |
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D |
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ete |
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nes |
me |
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C |
San |
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han |
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Solmization, §I: European medieval and Renaissance systems
Whatever
the truth about Guido’s role, the association of ut re etc. with the
pitches C–A soon gained hold, and the system acquired its chief pedagogical
principle: that mi–fa is always a semitone. The placing of the same
syllables on the pitches G–A–B–C–D–E, in which the semitone, now B–C, again
appears between mi and fa, seems also to have been attributed to
Guido in the Liber argumentorum (c1100), a commentary on the Micrologus.
The association of the syllables with the pitches F–G–A–B
–C–D was perhaps established a little later.
The system inherited by subsequent centuries, then, was that of six syllables
spanning a hexachord on C, G or F. Its illustration by means of the Guidonian
hand, on which each syllable is allotted to a finger-joint or -tip, also
postdates Guido, although the use of such hands for showing calendar
computations, tetrachords and the position of semitones is known before Guido.
The exact location of the syllables on the hand varies from source to source,
and although some arrangements seem to be more common than others, it is unwise
to suppose that there is one correct or even one favoured arrangement until all
versions have been compared. A common arrangement is shown in fig.1, which traces the order of syllables on
the hand in fig.2. It is not known how the hand was
used, if at all, in practice. It is possible that some form of Cheironomy, or pointing to the raised
hand of the teacher, may have helped the singers, but this can have indicated
only the letter and syllable names of the pitch, and the intervals that
surround it; without some extra sign it could not have shown the exact
syllable, nor the hexachord in use unless the pitch B was sung.
The attribution of the system to Guido, the establishment of the hand, and the use of syllables for the hexachord starting on F all date from the early 12th century, as do explanations of how to use the system and how to change from one hexachord to another, known as mutation. Johannes Afflighemensis (c1100) was the first major theorist to refer clearly to the system, but he did not explain how it was to be used: ‘Through these syllables, he who wishes to know about music may learn to sing any songs and may clearly and fully discover the extent of upward and downward movements and the varieties of them’ (ed. Smits van Waesberghe, 1950, p.50). As well as a method of learning to sing unknown chants, the system enabled teachers to distinguish between different species of interval: the minor 3rd D–F re–fa, for example, is different in its interval structure from E–G mi–sol. In addition, once the overlapping hexachords and the consequent assignation of more than one syllable per pitch were established, the octave of some pitches could be identified. This can be seen in Table 2, which became the standard method of illustrating the hexachords and their syllables. The hexachords beginning on C, G, and F received the names ‘natural’, ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ (naturale, durum, molle) respectively.
Rules for using the system began to appear, but these are not complete enough to allow a full understanding of fundamental features. It is obvious that a number of pitches can be sung with any one of three syllables: which syllable is in fact to be sung – on the first note of a chant, for example – is not made clear, although the range of the next few notes would presumably dictate a commonsense solution in many cases. If an opening C continues upwards to G or A, the natural hexachord beginning C ut would seem suitable. If it continues upwards only to E and then descends again, the same hexachord will fit, but so also will the hard hexachord, using C fa to start. There may thus be a certain ambiguity if the opening range is small. It seems clear that at least beginners would sing the syllables with the pitches when learning: ‘the intervals of the syllables may be pronounced completely, so that a semitone is not placed where a tone should be, and vice versa’ (Quatuor principalia, 14th century, CoussemakerS, iv, 250a); Gaffurius (1496) considered the intoning of the syllables almost mandatory for the best instruction of young singers. But nowhere is it clearly specified whether all the available syllables for a single pitch were normally sung (or imagined during the singing): common sense suggests that only the syllable of the hexachord in use was enunciated, and Johannes Legrense (c1450) stated that ‘one of these six syllables is sufficient for any given note’ (CoussemakerS, iv, 378a).
Solmization, §I: European medieval and Renaissance systems
Any
chant that exceeds the range of a single hexachord must involve changing from
one hexachord to another. This process is called mutation, and numerous
treatises give explicit instructions for it. In practice, for the occasional
excursion by a semitone outside the hexachord range, a mutation was often not
invoked, although this was regarded as a licence. The author of Quatuor
principalia referred directly to the semitone excursion, for which it is
possible either to mutate normally, or improprie sumere: ‘if from the fa
[of C fa ut] you wish to ascend to the fourth note above, it is
necessary to change the fa into ut, or to adopt incorrect
practice’ (CoussemakerS, iv, 223a). Legrense gave an example
which (if Coussemaker’s print is to be trusted) shows the progression A la–B fa–A la with
no reference to mutation (CoussemakerS, iv, 380). There are 16th-century
statements that excuse the singer from mutation and recommend that he sing
semitone extensions as fa (above the hexachord) or mi (below):
‘Toutesfois et quantes que par dessus ces six voix s’en trouvera une seule
n’excedante que d’une seconde, elle s’appellera fa, sans faire muance,
laquelle faudra profferer mollement mesmement sans aucun signe de b mol,
pourveu qu celuy de 
dur
n’y soit mis’ (Guilliaud, 1554; quoted in Allaire, 45). It was undoubtedly this
practice that led to the eventual formulation of the now too frequently quoted
rule ‘una nota super la semper est canendum fa’. This cliché does not seem to
have been stated explicitly before Praetorius (Syntagma musicum, i,
1614–15): the licence, of much earlier date, results in the flattening of B,
giving B fa, above A la, and the sharpening of the note below the
hexachord which one sings as mi. The Quatuor principalia refers
to a further abuse in connection with the latter practice, which is obviously
allied to the sharpening of leading notes: ‘many [singers] in modern times are
faulty … since when they pronounce sol fa sol or re ut re they
place a semitone there instead of a tone, thus confusing the diatonic genus and
falsifying the plainsong’ (CoussemakerS, iv, 250a).
When
really necessary, correct mutation is governed by these rules: on pitches with
only one syllable, there is no mutation (this is self-evident); on pitches with
two or three syllables, there are two or six possible mutations respectively;
on the pitch B, there can be no mutation between B and B because the sound is not a unison. Thus, on the
pitch C fa ut, there can be a mutation (which really means a change of
syllable) from ut to fa, or from fa to ut; on G sol
re ut, six mutations can occur: sol to re or re to sol,
sol to ut or ut to sol, re to ut or ut
to re. Mutations ‘ending in’ ut, re or mi are said
to be ascending because the melodic movement continues upwards into the new
hexachord: those ‘ending in’ fa, sol or la are said to be
descending because the melody continues downwards. A form of irregular but
necessary mutation is recorded by Gaffurius (1496), but must have been common
earlier. In this case, even though the melody continues downwards the mutation
‘ends in’ fa, one of the ascending syllables, because mutation is
impossible on B fa/B mi, as may be
seen in Table 3. It seems possible, at least in
principle, that at points of mutation both syllables were said, as in the above
example; and musical illustrations in Tinctoris (Expositio manus, c1472–3;
CoussemakerS, iv, 10bff) and Gaffurius show, at least in written
form, the presence of both syllables. Rhau’s Enchiridion (1518) uses the
term ‘explicit’ to refer to mutation in which both syllables are sounded and
‘implicit’ in the case where one syllable is understood.
Theorists in general agreed on these principles, which are hardly rules since they describe what must happen in order to mutate sensibly and successfully, there being no choice. Many questions of practical application remain unanswered. For example, in the series shown in Table 4 it is obviously possible to mutate on either F, G or A. In deciding which should be chosen two pieces of evidence can help. Many writers, from the 13th century onwards, stated that ‘wherever possible we should avoid mutation’ (CoussemakerS, i, 160a), from which it may be inferred that mutation should be delayed until absolutely necessary. Such a principle is confirmed in the useful examples given by Gaffurius and Anonymus 11 (15th century). The latter specified the pitch on which mutation is to take place. One of his examples, in which all six mutations on G occur, may serve to illustrate this point (CoussemakerS, iii, 421b; ex.1). Jacobus of Liège (early 14th century) maintained that mutation from hard to soft hexachords, or vice versa, was rare; this restriction appeared occasionally up to the 16th century, although many theorists treat such mutation as normal. Later, in a long chapter on irregular mutation, Jacobus referred to the necessity for improper mutation when leaps of a major 6th, 7th and octave were used, since these intervals exceed the range of the hexachord (even the major 6th, strictly within the range, will usually in practice exceed the hexachord being used); unfortunately he did not indicate which improper solution might be used. The tritone, moreover, ‘cannot have a place in the same hexachord, whence it must most rarely be used’ (CoussemakerS, ii, 293–4). Jacobus failed to point out that the direct melodic tritone cannot even be solmized by moving from one hexachord to another, since there is no common pitch on which correct mutation can take place. Such intervals as these are rarely needed in plainsong, in any case, but false mutation is necessary in polyphonic music.
Solmization, §I: European medieval and Renaissance systems
Solmization,
as well as being constantly used in plainchant, was taken up at least in
descriptions of polyphonic music. However, later writers on the latter subject
usually took the basic information for granted, probably because solmization
belonged with the rudiments, and polyphony with a later stage of learning. The
taking over of solmization into polyphonic theory and practice led eventually
to the breakdown or modification of the system. The basic reason for this was
the necessity in polyphonic music for vertical intervals to be perfect, a
principle that leads to the rule that mi may not be sounded against fa
on perfect intervals: ‘mi contra fa’ is therefore a polyphonic rule concerned
with chords. The need to place a perfect 5th above B or below B leads to the introduction of F
and E, notes that do not exist in the
gamut of Table 2. Since the notes of that gamut constituted the total repertory
of notes available (‘quibus tota musica conformatur’; CoussemakerS, i,
254b), other notes had to be ‘imagined’, or ‘feigned’, and were called musica
ficta or musica falsa. The practice of solmization, and the presence
of new semitones above F and below E in particular, led to the introduction of new
hexachords, in this case beginning on D and B. A circular method of illustrating the standard
hexachords, including the ficta hexachord on B, is shown in fig.3,
from the Breviarium regulare musice by Theinred of Dover. Writing in the
12th century, Theinred was one of the first theorists to codify such new
hexachords, and later theorists, at first often of less than major importance
in other respects, continued and expanded the tradition. Petrus frater dictus
Palma ociosa, in the 14th century, explained such new hexachords as a matter of
course (Compendium de discantu mensurabili). Nevertheless the
conservative Jacobus of Liège, writing about the same time (Speculum musice),
condemned the use of more than three syllables per pitch that resulted from the
addition of extra hexachords. He called mutation between the standard and the
new hexachords false mutation, and that which it produced falsa musica (CoussemakerS,
ii, 293a). Mutation of this kind placed adjacent the syllables sol
and mi, from which Renaissance theorists abstracted the term
‘solmization’: medieval writers used only the noun ‘solfatio’ and verb
‘solfare’.
Although
difficult to prove conclusively as an accepted medieval theory, there were
attempts, probably in the 14th century, to increase the number of chromatic
notes available by transposing the original system a 5th or a tone down,
transpositions which were indicated by the equivalent of modern key signatures
(perhaps better called ‘gamut signatures’). Ugolino of Orvieto (Declaratio
musice discipline, c1430) was one of the first major theorists to
attempt a combination of expanded original gamut with transposed gamuts. The
new chromatic notes, at first restricted to F, C, E and A, were called coniuncte. ‘Coniuncta is
the making of an irregular tone where a semitone should be, or vice versa; the
placing of a flat or natural sign in an irregular place; the immediate joining
of one note after another’ (CoussemakerS, iv, 180b); this fairly
typical set of definitions, by Tinctoris (Terminorum musicae diffinitorium),
virtually equates the coniuncta with musica ficta. But the term
perhaps originates from, and more correctly means, the complete range of ficta
hexachords, which were joined to the standard gamut and into which the
chromatic notes fit. Anonymus 11 gave a particularly complete discussion of coniuncte.
One result of the chromatic expansion was that the accidental signs, which
previously had unequivocal meanings (a flat sign calls for fa above a
semitone, a sharp or natural for mi below a semitone), now became
ambiguous: to give E fa,
for example, the beginning of the hexachord was B ut. Worse, the accidental need not
necessarily stand above or below a semitone, as it had always done previously:
E ut–F re–G mi–A fa or
E ut–F re–G
mi–A fa–B sol–C la.
Solmization, §I: European medieval and Renaissance systems
Ramis
de Pareia’s treatise of 1482 (ed. Wolf, 1901) was the first to suggest a break
with the Guidonian tradition: Ramos proposed a set of eight syllables
associated with the octave c–c', psal–li–tur per vo–ces is–tas, claiming
that the consonant ‘s’ of the last three indicates where the difficult
semitones B–B–C occur. He gave no
details of how his system should be used and naturally his opponents,
especially Burtius and Hothby, roundly attacked the proposal. Elsewhere in the
treatise Ramos adopted the conventional system, with its coniuncte, and
did not expand it much beyond Ugolino.
No
further attempts to add a seventh or eighth syllable seem to have been made
before the end of the 16th century, although there were attempts to integrate
the hexachords with the modes and to make the system, by now very complex,
simpler and more consistent. Gaffurius interlocked two hexachords to form a
heptachord. Spangenberg, in his treatise of 1536, said: ‘He who solmizes must
first consider the mode’, while Bogentantz (1515) maintained that the 3rd, 4th,
7th and 8th modes, which use B, were termed ‘hard’; the 5th and 6th, which use B, were ‘soft’; the 1st and
2nd, using neither, were ‘natural’. Bermudo linked the 1st, 4th, 6th and 8th
modes with the natural form and said that the 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 7th were not
much used: soft modes were produced by transposition. There seems to have been
a strong tendency in the 16th century to reduce the number of hexachords to
two, even though three were recognized as more traditional: Heyden (1540) named
the three, and a fourth called fictus, but said that the hard and soft
hexachords were sufficient since every song either did or did not have a flat
in the key signature. Morley (1597) in his annotations allowed three hexachords
for plainchant but only two for polyphony.
Attempts
to simplify mutation occurred. Instead of the choice of three syllables for
ascending and three for descending, some 16th-century theorists allowed only re
for ascent, and la for descent (Guilliaud, Rudiments de musique
pratique, 1554; quoted in Allaire, 47–8). Loys Bourgeois (1550), although
his table is erroneous, suggested in his text that only ut should be
used for ascent, so that instead of the patterns shown in Table
5a there were the simpler forms of Table 5b. Another
simplification, mentioned by Rhau (and probably others) and to be observed in
the title of Ockeghem’s Missa ‘Mi-mi’, is the practice of singing leaps
of 4ths, 5ths and octaves with the same syllable, apparently either mi
or fa. This usage implies the presence of ficta hexachords: C–G
sung as fa–fa necessitates use of the hexachord on D, to give G fa;
A–D sung as mi–mi uses the hexachord on B, to give D mi.
As with the introduction of ficta hexachords, innovations such as these appear to have been made mostly by theorists of lesser stature, and even references to solmization by the major writers such as Zarlino and Glarean are usually perfunctory and conventional. By exception, Gaffurius (1496) gave a particularly clear explanation, with examples, although he referred only to the standard three-hexachord system unencumbered with later extensions. Since less attention has been paid to the treatises of less significant writers, it is probably not yet possible to generalize about the changes which took place in the theory and practice of Renaissance solmization.
Detailed rules for the application of solmization are hard to come by; only in the 16th century, when there were modifications of the system, is there information on certain points. As a result, it has become a habit to interpret the medieval system according to principles of the 16th century or even later, whose retrospective application has not been proved. The date of all the evidence presented above should be closely observed, often with the presumption that earlier documentation could not be found. A few points in particular need to be stressed. Until the 16th century, there seems to be no evidence linking the hexachord and modal systems, although the latter, in common with many other descriptions, uses the syllabary of solmization for convenience. The licence of extending hexachords without mutation is clearly of medieval origin, but its formulation into a principle such as the well-known rule ‘una nota super la’ is difficult to find before the 17th century. The practice of solmization in connection with learning plainchant can be regarded as definite: its use in part-music seems certain, especially from the 14th century, but the wider range and especially the presence of accidentals written into the manuscripts must have made its proper application virtually impossible in many cases.
W.G. McNaught: ‘The History and Uses of the Sol-Fa Syllables’, PMA, xix (1892–3), 35–51
G. Lange: ‘Zur Geschichte der Solmisation’, SIMG, i (1899–1900), 535–622
H. Riemann: Handbuch der Musikgeschichte, i/1 (Leipzig, 1904, 3/1923)
G. Schünemann: ‘Ursprung und Bedeutung der Solmisation’, Schulmusikalische Zeitdokumente (Leipzig, 1929), 41–52
I. Lohr: Solmisation und Kirchentonarten (Basle, 1943, 2/1948)
J. Handschin: Der Toncharakter: eine Einführung in die Tonpsychologie (Zürich, 1948/R)
W. Wiora: ‘Zum Problem des Ursprungs der mittelalterlichen Solmisation’, Mf, ix (1956), 263–74 [see also H. Hickmann, Mf, x (1957), 403–4]
C.-A. Moberg: ‘Die Musik in Guido von Arezzos Solmisationshymne’, AMw, xvi (1959), 187–206
C. Parrish: ‘A Renaissance Music Manual for Choirboys’, Aspects of Medieval and Renaissance Music: a Birthday Offering to Gustave Reese, ed. J. LaRue and others (New York, 1966), 649–64
A. Seay: ‘The 15th-Century coniuncta: a Preliminary Study’, ibid., 723–37
K.-W. Gümpel: ‘Zur Frühgeschichte der vulgärsprachlichen und katalanischen Musiktheorie’, Spanische Forschungen der Görresgesellschaft, 1st ser.: Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Kulturgeschichte Spaniens (Münster, 1968), 257–336
A. Hughes: ‘Ugolino: the Monochord and Musica ficta’, MD, xxiii (1969), 21–39
G.G. Allaire: The Theory of Hexachords, Solmization and the Modal System, MSD, xxiv (1972)
A. Hughes: Manuscript Accidentals: Ficta in Focus, MSD, xxvii (1972)
R. Killam: ‘Solmization with the Guidonian Hand: a Historical Introduction to Modal Counterpoint’, Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, ii (1988), 251–73
F. Gaffurius: Practica musicae (Milan, 1496, 2/1497); ed. with Eng. trans. in MSD, xx (1969)
B. Bogentantz: Collectanea utriusque cantus (Cologne, 1515, 3/1535 as Rudimenta utriusque cantus)
G. Rhau: Enchiridion utriusque musicae practicae (Wittenberg, 1517, 2/1518 as Enchiridion musices ex variis musicorum libris depromptu, 9/1558/R)
J. Spangenberg: Quaestiones musicae (Nuremberg, 1536, 2/1542)
S. Heyden: De arte canendi (Nuremberg, 1540/R); Eng. trans. in MSD, xxvi (1972)
J. Bermudo: Comiença el libro primero de la Declaración de instrumentos musicales (Osuna, 1549) [also in El libro llamado Declaración de instrumentos musicales (Osuna, 1555)]
L. Bourgeois: Le droict chemin de musique (Geneva, 1550/R1954 in DM, 1st ser., vi; Eng. trans., 1982)
M. Guilliaud: Rudiments de musique pratique (Paris, 1554/R)
T. Morley: A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke (London, 1597/R); ed. R.A. Harman (London, 1952, 2/1963)
J. Wolf, ed.: Musica practica Bartolomei Rami de Pareia (Leipzig, 1901/R)
J. Smits van Waesberghe, ed.: Johannes Afflighemensis [Cotto]: De musica cum tonario, CSM, i (1950)
J. Smits van Waesberghe: De musico-paedagogico et theoretico Guidone Aretino (Florence, 1953)
J. Smits van Waesberghe, ed.: Micrologus Guidonis Aretini, CSM, iv (1955)
J. Smits van Waesberghe, ed.: Expositiones in Micrologum Guidonis Aretini (Amsterdam, 1957)
C. Parrish, ed.: J. Tinctoris: Terminorum musicae diffinitorium (New York, 1963)
Solmization, §II: Ancient and non-European systems
Solmization is not a purely Western phenomenon, nor was Europe the first place in which it developed. However, recognition of it as a more ancient and worldwide device depends on a more broadly based definition than that derived from Guido of Arezzo; and also on an extension of the function normally attributed to it. Further, the solmization systems of certain non-European civilizations contain fundamental differences which reflect equally great differences in the nature of melody.
The most essential feature of the Guidonian system was the fact that each syllable indicated the quality of a given pitch. That is, it indicated the function of a pitch within a mode, setting it implicitly in the context of a surrounding interval pattern, and in particular establishing the proximity of the semitone to the pitch in question. It was thus concerned with modal structure, not with absolute pitch; with note functions (voces), not with single note identities (claves). The system of mutation described above helped further to release the mind from absolute pitch and to encourage an inner orientation within the continuum of sound.
Certain properties of the medieval system hark back to earlier practices in Europe and elsewhere, thus opening new perspectives to a wider dissemination of the concept of solmization in the ancient and Asian world. Among these was the Guidonian hand, which has early parallels, if not forerunners, in the Chinese and Indian reading hands. Another, even more important property was the existence of a model song, in this case Ut queant laxis, which supplied the basic material of the solmization system. Model songs of this kind are still used by Arab and Hindu singers and instrumentalists, and are a constant point of mental reference for them while improvising. This constitutes a literary-musical tradition and a psychological approach to music which goes back to ancient times and which has long been common knowledge in East and West. The poem to St John the Baptist that served as Guido’s model song was already widely known and used as a daily prayer at least 200 years earlier. (It was probably written by Paulus Diaconus c770.) The general familiarity with its text rendered it suitable for use as an acrostic – a device widely used in lyrical poetry during the central Middle Ages. The words containing the acrostic syllables were then coupled to a melody specially constructed for teaching purposes in such a way that the beginnings of successive melodic lines together formed an ascending scale of six notes (ut–la). By this means, text and melody came to be associated completely automatically.
This was a mnemonic device of great technical and psychological insight; yet it was not Guido’s personal invention, nor was it confined to the West. Counterparts can be found in those civilizations of the East in which notes as single entities form the basic material of music, as in East Asia. In the following survey only those systems whose pitch relationships were built up on measured ratios have been included. Thus none of the many neumatic scripts of Asiatic countries is taken into consideration. Of the two major categories of notation, vocal and instrumental, vocal notations follow the characteristics of the unaccompanied singing voice, as heard in most ritual cantillations and epics. They do not aim at intervals but try to reflect the undulations and mannerisms of the voice, and consequently their script is graphic and irrational, and represents groups of notes by single symbols (neumes; see Notation, §III, 1). As a result, there is no possibility of solmizing around discrete pitches, as can be done in any instrumental system with acoustically measured notes. Thus, solmization in the Western sense has no place here. In fact most styles of singing do make use of a system of pitch symbols, which comes into operation as each of the neumatic groups is memorized. But the process is very different from that involving instrumental notation, and the present survey will consequently be limited to instrumentally bound rational theories.
Solmization, §II: Ancient and non-European systems
China developed an abundance of musical notations, some of which come close to being solmization systems. They occur whenever phonetic symbols are employed, or indeed any kind of sound symbols, to represent intervallic movements rather than single notes. On the other hand, intervallic progressions presuppose a pre-set series of basic notes with fixed tuning. The musical system of ancient China fulfilled both these requirements: the ancient doctrine whereby the 12 fundamental notes (lü-lü, c2700 bce) are of absolute pitch; and the system of pentatonic modes, all movable in pitch (4th century bce). The lü system, based on the ‘tonic’ of huang-chung (‘yellow bell’; the pitch standard of all music), consisted of a row of pitch pipes which were measured, calculated and imbued with cosmological connotations. They were an abstract pitch series rather than a medium for practical use. The system of pentatonic modes, by contrast, was an abstract of everyday musical practice, and as such became the most practical theory in many countries of East Asia. (It was first described in detail by the theorist Cheng Hüan in the 2nd century ce.)
Its tonic, kung, was originally fixed by the pitch standard, but later developed as an indication of relative pitch. The system’s five characters are shown in Table 6. They became solmization syllables of a kind, rotating through five possible ‘inversions’, each starting on a different character but maintaining the original order; each of these inversions could also start on any one of the 12 absolute lü pitches, making 60 possible pentatonic rows in all.
In Vietnam, too, there has been increasing use of indications of relative pitch, in a system which is capable of being shifted wholesale upwards or downwards in pitch (i.e. ‘mutation’), and adaptable even to the singer’s vocal compass.
In medieval China, a new notation developed during the Song dynasty (960–1279; earliest source 1093 ce), called kung-ch’e p’u. It is almost contemporary with the Guidonian system; like the latter it proved to be the most popular script, and is in use to this day. Not unlike the earlier Chinese systems, Song notation employs ancient ideograms as sound symbols, though the characters are now abbreviated and simplified. While in the north of China the system was expanded to what was theoretically a chromatic series of 19 notes, and was thus brought back to fixed pitch, in the south the more traditional one of nine diatonic steps (originally two conjunct pentachords, c'–g', g'–d'') was retained. This scheme of a double pentachord seemed to be the ideal frame for solmization-like transits, or ‘mutations’ (see Table 7; after Kaufmann, 1967, p.76). ‘The shifting of ho (Do; C), comparable to the “movable do” of the West, led to the creation of a number of scales … which facilitated transpositions and changes of mode’ (Kaufmann, 1967, p.77). It is interesting to note that the two upper-octave notes c and d are given names different from those of their lower-octave counterparts. The way in which solmization works may provide one of the reasons for this: the upper two notes do not occupy the same position within their pentachord (notes 4–5) as the lower two (notes 1–2), and so do not have the same intervallic value. Song notation can also be found, with local modifications and greatly extended, in Korea, under the name kongch’ǒk-po.
Solmization, §II: Ancient and non-European systems
Together with China and Korea, Japan developed some of the most interesting solmization systems, mainly in connection with two of its most important art forms, gagaku and nō. As is the case with certain other solmization notations, the sound symbols usually appear in conjunction with a normal notation, or even with two such notations. The wind section of the gagaku orchestra illustrates this well. It consists of a ryūteki (flute), hichiriki (cylindrical oboe) and shō (mouth organ). Both the ryūteki and the hichiriki have three columns of notation, the shō two. Of the three columns, the characters in the central column represent solmization syllables, the smaller ones to the left indicate fingering on the instrument, and the dots to the right signify the rhythmic division (see fig.4; after Malm, 1959, p.264). Leaving aside the organ notation, it seems as if only the combined forces of solmizing and fingering, together with rhythm marks, were able to assure a faithful realization of the musical idea. The central phonetic symbols are part of ‘a solfège system by which the player originally learned the music’ (Malm, 1959, p.265), and no more than isolated signposts pointing the way to more complex melismas and melodic tropes. They no longer form a solmization notation moving between definite modal intervals, but a solfège notation of a specific Eastern genre: a guide to improvisation based on a few basic symbols of multiple significance. It is not a script to be read by the uninitiated. Thereby the gagaku and nō notations moved to the pole of solmization opposite to its function in the West, where it was expressly designed for rudimentary education of the uninitiated. Yet the essential idea behind solmization, of perpetuating a given melody in the learner’s mind through a meticulous performance comprising intonations, dynamics and embellishments, continued in gagaku, particularly so in its teaching method (Jap. shōga: ‘sing-song’). This includes ‘abstract syllables that suggest phrasing, embellishments, and pitch-wavering (meri-kari). … In this way, the student memorizes his entire repertory before he is allowed even as much as to touch his instrument. It is probable that we owe the survival of court music to this painstaking rote method’ (Harich-Schneider, 1953, pp.53–4). Thus even in this East Asian art music, hidden for many centuries from the rest of the world, a scheme of sing-song syllables has always been at the root of oral teaching (see Japan, §VI, 4). As in Western solmization, yet unaware of it, the Japanese syllables became intensely meaningful and aimed at transmitting the melodic style in its entirety – independent and even regardless of the co-existing written documentation in partbooks.
Solmization, §II: Ancient and non-European systems
Similarities between Indian and Western systems of solmization are so obvious that it is tempting to assume some interdependence, but mutual contacts have not been proved.
There is no musical notation in Hindu music culture except for Samavedic chant (see India). According to Fox Strangways (1914, p.vi), the system used is a sol-fa notation ‘of which the various local scripts and special signs are easily mastered’. For musical education an elaborate system of solmization developed from c200 bce to 500 ce (see Bharata: Nātya-śāstra, chap.28). This early treatise states that musical science was based on seven diatonic notes within an octave (svara) which were marked with solmization syllables as in Table 8. These seven singing syllables are abbreviations of fuller Sanskrit terms which have been symbolically associated with animal cries as a means of determinating their absolute pitch, purity and nature (Daniélou, 1968, p.26):
Shadja [doh] is sounded by the peacock, Rishabha is uttered by the chātaka bird. The goat bleats Gandhara, the heron cries Madhyama. … Panchama is softly sung by the cuckoo … Dhaivata is croaked by the frog in the season of rains. At all times … Nishada is trumpeted by the elephant.
In classical times, this basic octave developed into three classes of scale (grāma) starting, respectively, on the first, fourth and fifth degrees of the basic scale. This is an interesting parallel to the three intonational degrees of the Guidonian hexachord and mutation scheme including, also, the characteristic change of an interval relation (Guido: B durum–molle; India: the microtonal change of one śruti on the dha [A]). Of this medieval classification, the third grāma, later also the second one on ma (F) became obsolete, but solmization still has a role in defining the species of melody.
Solmizing in modern Indian classical music has developed to a special art form usually performed with great virtuosity towards the end of a rāga-cycle and called svara, sargam (sa–ri–ga–ma), svarāvarta or surāvarta: here the singer replaces the poetic text with the appropriate sol-fa syllables, reciting them in quick parlando style. This display of lingual dexterity has its parallel in the language of drum-words (bols) which reproduces the rhythmic patterns of the drummer. The parlando-movement svara, just before the end of the rāga, seems also to serve the purpose of offering the more initiated listener an unadorned modal reduction of the rāga variations, which until this point has been freely improvised and embellished. Ex.2 (from Fox Strangways, 1914, p.285) shows such an interpolation into a rāga section of solmization syllables, the music then reverting without a break to the original poetic text carrying an additional variation.
Solmization, §II: Ancient and non-European systems
An interesting variation of the solmization idea is found on the island of Bali which, together with Java, is considered one of the two main cultural centres of the archipelago. The musical history of the two islands proceeded along different paths. Java was for centuries under Islamic domination, being part of the Sultanate; but Bali escaped Muslim influence (as well as the earlier Buddhist wave), retaining its Hindu traditions. Whereas Java did not develop a musical notation or a solmization scheme until recently, Bali did so centuries ago. One of the reasons why solmization developed may be the decentralization of musical practice in many independent villages or village republics with varying local traditions. Cultural diffusion worked against a unified pitch system and, more specifically, against a fixed pitch, the absence of which often generated solmization schemes based on movable pitch and on structural thought in music.
The Balinese type of solmization was probably necessitated by its tonal system of five near-equidistant notes in the octave, around which certain nuclear themes (Javanese balungan; Balinese pokok) had become established. With no standard tunings the sol-fa series had to be movable. Five singing syllables using the five vowels of speech form the basic row, with the addition of the (rarely used) half-tones (see Table 9; after E. Schlager, ‘Bali’, MGG1).
A number of Balinese kidung poems carry a solmization script whose vowels are matched exactly to those of the text (madu = dang-dung). The vowels of the poem thus reveal the melodic progressions. In this case, melody is not a living tune but an artificially arranged ‘cantus firmus’ of some fundamental notes which would be counterpointed by a rich canvas of orchestral voices proceeding heterophonically.
Solmization, §II: Ancient and non-European systems
Arab solmization schemes have been the subject of much discussion. One problem is the difficulty of making a clear distinction between Arab musical notation and solmization (i.e. between the principles of claves, providing a note row with fixed single pitches; and voces, the aurally perceptible movements between them. Theoretically, Arab music is built on a fundamental note-row (maqām) which could be compared to the Greek systema teleion, or the Chinese lü. Like the latter, however, these root notes are not used melodically; they are thus rather remote from any living practice of music, which can dispense with written symbols, and has always done so. Like most monophonic musical traditions of the East, Arab music is at its best when perceived as a sound continuum. By its very nature it runs counter to the distinct separation of notes which occurs in any letter or staff notation, or even to the concatenation of intervals. As in Islamic art, melodic movement is convolute, literally arabesque.
For these (and many more) reasons, there was no original or regularly practised Arab solmization system. Leaving aside certain historical efforts to formulate such notation systems as, for example, instrumental tablatures (for lute, tanbūr etc.), one of the true solmization schemes may be cited which had certainly been devised through some contact with, and in imitation of, the Guidonian system. It was reported first in Meninski’s Thesaurus linguarum orientalium (1680) as an example of the ‘notae musicae’ and again, 100 years later, in J.-B. de La Borde’s Essai sur la musique ancienne et moderne, the solmization table from which is given in Table 10 (after Farmer, 1930, p.77). Neither author indicates the origin or use of this scheme. There are seven basic notes (the hexachord is not common in Arab music theory), stretching from la to sol, with its ‘mutation’, or transposed version, from mi to re. The Arab singing syllables are not selected from foreign or acrostic words, nor from abbreviations of ancient (ritual or cosmological) terms, but they are the usual names of the Arabic alphabet used according to their phonetic value and their ‘phonetic likeness’ to the Guidonian syllables. To emphasize their assonant character they therefore appear in a quite irregular order (the third and fourth columns of Table 10). Their alphabetical order is retained only in the left-hand column, where the Arab letters are in juxtaposition with the Latin ones. This is a rare case where the same symbols are used to represent jointly claves as well as voces, distinguishable only by the different order in which they appear.
A solmization system from ancient Greece is in the writings of Aristides Quintilianus (late 3rd and early 4th centuries) and J.F. Bellermann’s Anonymus (see Greece, §I). Because of the pivotal point which Greece occupied between Eastern and Western civilizations, this scheme of solmization has already been closely investigated (by Ruelle, Riemann, Handschin, Wiora and others). It is a simple device of four singing syllables with changing vowels (te–ta–tē–tō), bound strictly to the tetrachordal design of the ‘perfect system’. The first and main syllable te (genēseos symbolon) is given to the proslambanomenos A (La) and to its two octaves enclosing four groups of identically constructed trichords (B–c–d, e–f–g, etc.), given here in the Dorian mode, with the decisive semitone (always ta–tē) at the start (ascending). So, while each tetrachord does include the four phonetic symbols, the internal order of recurring intervals (½–1–1) is rather the result of paired trichords (see Table 11; after Riemann, 1912–13, p.274).
The origin of the Guidonian hexachord remains an open question. In the above distribution of the solmization syllables in two pairs of trichords, or two hexachords, a possible solution of the problem appears. Scholars agree that the Greek te–ta–tē–tō system was adopted by the Byzantines, who had many contacts with the west Romans, especially during the Carolingian period. Whatever conclusions are drawn, one point in particular is worth noting: the coupling of the early (theoretical) tetrachord system in letter notes with the newer (practical) trichord system, in solmization notes.
There are still other problems to be solved, for instance the possible interrelation of the Greek solmization phonetics with the mnemonic noeane formulae of Gregorian chant (see Ēchos, §2). Riemann (1912–13) explored this question on the basis of one of Hucbald’s notated examples, a formula to the ‘tonus prōtos’ which carries, besides the Greek notation, the mnemonic noeane syllables. The obvious similarities between the two, particularly the use of the same vowels as indicators of the modal functions within the tetrachordal species, led Riemann to claim establishment of a link between Asian, Greek, Byzantine and Roman-Guidonian doctrines. Seeing the noeane vowels as a step towards a precise solmization system opens a new cycle of questions concerning their origin (see Werner, 1942; Wiora, 1956), their replacement by mnemonic model songs or initial figures, or their use as tropes in alleluiatic songs (Chottin, 1939; Gerson-Kiwi, 1967). A solution demands the knowledge of both music historians and ethnomusicologists.
Solmization, §II: Ancient and non-European systems
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ReeseMMA
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A. Chottin: Tableau de la musique marocaine (Paris, 1939), 150
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H. Hickmann: ‘Le problème de la notation musicale dans l’Egypte ancienne’, Bulletin de l’Institut d’Egypte, xxxvi (1955), 489–531, esp. 491
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