{{Short description|Systems associating syllables to musical notes}} [[File:The Hand of Guido.jpg|thumb|175px|Guidonian hand, from 1274 ''Biblioteca Ambrosiana'' ]]
'''Solmization''' is a mnemonic system in which a distinct syllable is attributed to each note of a musical scale. Various forms of solmization are in use and have been used throughout the world, but solfège is the most common convention in countries of Western culture.
==Overview== ===Europe=== ====Solfège==== The seven syllables normally used for this practice in English-speaking countries are: '''do''', '''re''', '''mi''', '''fa''', '''sol''', '''la''', and '''ti''' (with sharpened notes of '''di''', '''ri''', '''fi''', '''si''', '''li''' and flattened notes of '''ra''', '''me''', '''se''', '''le''', '''te'''). The system for other Western countries is similar, though '''si''' is often used as the final syllable rather than '''ti'''.
Guido of Arezzo is thought likely to have originated the modern Western system of solmization by introducing the ut–re–mi–fa–so–la syllables, which derived from the initial syllables of each of the first six half-lines of the first stanza of the hymn ''Ut queant laxis''.<ref name="Grove 2001">{{cite Grove |author1-first=Andrew |author1-last=Hughes |author2-first=Edith |author2-last=Gerson-Kiwi |date=2001 |title=Solmization |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.26154 |url-access=subscription }} {{twlac|doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.26154}}</ref> Giovanni Battista Doni is known for having changed the name of note "Ut" (C), renaming it "Do" (in the "Do Re Mi ..." sequence known as solfège).<ref name="McNaught"> {{cite journal | last = McNaught | first = W. G. | year = 1893 | title = The History and Uses of the Sol-fa Syllables | journal = Proceedings of the Musical Association | volume = 19 | pages = 35–51 | publisher = Novello, Ewer and Co. | location = London | doi = 10.1093/jrma/19.1.35 | issn = 0958-8442 | url = https://zenodo.org/record/1867519 | accessdate = 2010-02-26 }} </ref> An alternative explanation, first proposed by Franciszek Meninski in ''Thesaurus Linguarum Orientalium'' (1680) and later by Jean-Benjamin de La Borde in ''Essai sur la Musique Ancienne et Moderne'' (1780), is that the syllables were derived from the Arabic solmization system درر مفصّلات ''Durar Mufaṣṣalāt'' ("Separated Pearls") (''dāl, rā', mīm, fā', ṣād, lām, tā''') during the Middle Ages,<ref>Farmer (1988), p.72–82. {{Full citation needed|date=August 2014}}</ref> but there is not any documentary evidence for it.<ref>{{citation|title=Guido d'Arezzo: Medieval Musician and Educator|first=Samuel D.|last=Miller|journal=Journal of Research in Music Education|volume=21|issue=3|date=Autumn 1973|pages=239–45|doi=10.2307/3345093|publisher=MENC_ The National Association for Music Education|jstor=3345093|s2cid=143833782}}</ref>
==== Chromatic fixed-do systems ==== In addition to traditional diatonic solmization systems, various theorists have proposed fully chromatic systems in which each of the twelve pitch classes of the equal-tempered scale is assigned a unique syllable. Such systems aim to improve the conventional fixed-do practice, in which chromatic alterations (e.g., C♯ or C♭) are often sung using modified or context-dependent forms of the same base syllable.<ref>{{cite web |title=Solmization |url=https://chromatone.center/theory/notes/solmization/ |website=Chromatone |access-date=2026-03-31}}</ref>
Their motivation is that a unique name for each of the 12 pitch classes may help: * in audiation (the mental hearing of music when reading a score) * and in pitch identification (naming/writing the notes when hearing music), both for relative and absolute pitch.
One example is the solmization system proposed by José A. Sotorrío, a music theorist (he is also associated with alternative notation systems<ref>{{cite web |title=Bilinear Notation by José A. Sotorrío |url=https://musicnotation.org/system/bilinear-notation-by-jose-a-sotorrio/ |website=Music Notation Project |access-date=2026-03-31}}</ref>). His approach for solmization assigns twelve distinct syllables (''do, ga, re, nu, mi, fa, jur, sol, ki, la, pe, tsi'') to the chromatic scale<ref>{{cite book |last=Sotorrío |first=José A. |title=Bilinear Music Notation: A New Notation System for the Modern Musician |publisher=Spectral Music |year=2007 |isbn=0954849825 |url=https://www.abebooks.com/9780954849825/Bilinear-Music-Notation-New-System-0954849825/plp }}</ref>. One feature is that it retains the traditional diatonic syllables (do re mi fa sol la ti/si) and introduces a limited number of 5 new syllables for the remaining semitones.
Sotorrío’s system forms part of a broader group of experimental and pedagogical proposals that treat all twelve semitones as structurally equivalent, reflecting theoretical developments in chromatic and post-tonal music.
Another example of a chromatic fixed-do systems are the ones by Hullah or Shearer. They also retains the seven traditional diatonic names, and derive additional forms for altered pitches through systematic vowel modification. For example, a base syllable such as ''re'' may become ''ra'' for Re♭ and ''ri'' for Re♯.
Another approach is represented by the ''Latoni'' system, which frees itself from compatibility with the traditional names and introduces a newly constructed set of 21 syllables. It is designed to systematically encode the pitch class in the consonant, and the whole tone / half tone relationships in the vowel.
{| class="wikitable" ! System !! Type !! Treatment of diatonic syllables !! Method for chromatic tones !! Notable feature |- | Traditional fixed-do | Heptatonic | Retained (''do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti/si'') | add "sharp" / "flat" to indicate accidentals | Widely used in Romance-language pedagogy |- | Hullah / Shearer systems | Chromatic fixed-do | Retained | Vowel modification (e.g., ''re'' → ''ra'' for D♭, ''ri'' for D♯) | Derivation from base syllables with enharmonic distinction |- | Sotorrío system | Chromatic fixed-do | Retained | Five syllables (''ga, nu, jur, ki, pe'') added to the 7 classical ones (so 12 in total) | One-to-one mapping between syllables and pitch classes |- | Latoni system | Chromatic fixed-do | Not retained | 21 new syllabes | One-to-one mapping between consonants and pitch classes, vowels make semitones explicit |}
====Other european systems==== Byzantine music uses syllables derived from the Greek alphabet to name notes: starting with A, the notes are '''pa''' (alpha), '''vu''' (beta, pronounced v in modern greek), '''ga''' (gamma), '''di''' (delta), '''ke''' (epsilon), '''zo''' (zeta), '''ni''' (eta).<ref>Chrysanthos of Madytos, ''[https://anemi.lib.uoc.gr/php/pdf_pager.php?rec=/metadata/e/c/4/metadata-01-0000443.tkl&do=83317.pdf&lang=en&pageno=1&pagestart=1&width=404.16%20pts&height=608.88%20pts&maxpage=306 Θεωρητικὸν μέγα τῆς Μουσικῆς]'', Trieste, 1832, p.25-26</ref>
In Scotland, the system known as Canntaireachd ("chanting"') was used as a means of communicating bagpipe music verbally.
===Asian systems===
The Svara solmization of India has origins in Vedic texts like the Upanishads, which discuss a musical system of seven notes, realized ultimately in what is known as sargam. In Indian classical music, the notes in order are: '''sa''', '''re''', '''ga''', '''ma''', '''pa''', '''dha''', and '''ni''', which correspond to the Western solfege system.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Morris|first1=Robert|editor1-last=Tenzer|editor1-first=Michael|title=Analytical Studies in World Music|date=2009|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|page=309|chapter=Architectonic Composition in South Indian Classical Music: The "Navaragamalika Varnam"|quote=The svara sections are sung in sargam (Indian solfege), using the Indian note names, sa, ri, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni (which correspond to the Western do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti).}}</ref>
For Han people's music in China, the words used to name notes are (from fa to mi): 上 ('''siong''' or '''shàng'''), 尺 ('''cei''' or '''chǐ'''), 工 ('''gōng'''), 凡 ('''huan''' or '''fán'''), 六 ('''liuo''' or '''liù'''), 五 ('''ngou''' or '''wǔ'''), 乙 ('''yik''' or '''yǐ'''). The system is used for teaching sight-singing.
For Japanese music, the first line of ''Iroha'', an ancient poem used as a tutorial of traditional kana, is used for solmization. The syllables representing the notes A, B, C, D, E, F, G are '''i''', '''ro''', '''ha''', '''ni''', '''ho''', '''he''', '''to''' respectively. Shakuhachi musical notation uses another solmization system beginning "Fu Ho U".
Javanese musicians derive syllables from numbers: '''ji'''-'''ro'''-'''lu'''-'''pat'''-'''ma'''-'''nem'''-'''pi'''. These names derive from one-syllable simplification of the Javanese numerals ''siji, loro, telu, papat, lima, enem, pitu''. (''[Pa]pat'' and ''pi[tu]'', corresponding to 4 and 7, are skipped in the pentatonic ''slendro'' scale.)
==See also== *Solfège *Kodály method *Numbered musical notation *Shape note *Tonic sol-fa
==References== {{Reflist}}
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Category:Ear training Category:Musical notation