In music, solfège (, also called solfeggio, sol-fa, solfedge, or solfa) is a pedagogical solmization technique for the teaching of sight-singing in which each note of the score is sung to a special syllable, called a solfège syllable (or "sol-fa syllable"). The seven syllables commonly used for this practice in English-speaking countries are: do (or doh in tonic sol-fa), re, mi, fa, sol (so in ''tonic sol-fa''), la, and ti/si, which 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". 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 in China, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Romania, Russia, South America and parts of North America, Japan, and Vietnam) and movable do (used in the United Kingdom, Germany, Indian classical music, and the United States).

Etymology[link]

Italian "solfeggio" and French "solfège" ultimately derive from the names of two of the syllables used: so[l] and fa. 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 solfège).

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 "solfège", but is technically a more generic term, taking in alternative series of syllables used in other cultures such as India and Japan.

Origin[link]

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. 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 laxis resonāre fibris Mira gestorum famuli tuorum, Solve polluti labii reatum, Sancte Iohannes.

The hymn (''The Hymn of St. John'') was written by Paulus Diaconus in the 8th century. It translates 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, 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 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. "Ti" is used in tonic sol-fa and in the song "Do-Re-Mi".

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''. This was eventually eliminated by the 19th century, but it was (and still is in a few rare circumstances) used in the shape note system, which gives each solfège syllable a different shape.

Alternative theories[link]

An alternative theory on the origins of solfège proposes that it may have also had Arabic musical origins. It has been argued that the solfège syllables (''do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti'') may have been derived from the syllables of the Arabic solmization system درر مفصّلات ''Durar Mufaṣṣalāt'' ("Separated Pearls") (''dāl, rā', mīm, fā', ṣād, lām, tā''') during the Islamic contributions to Medieval Europe. This origin theory was first proposed by François de Mesgnien Meninski in 1680, and then by J. B. de Laborde in 1780. Guillaume Villoteau ''(Description historique, technique et litteraire des instruments de musique des orientaux'' in the ''Description de l'Égypte'', Paris 1809) appears to endorse this view. However, there is no documentary evidence for this theory.

In all of Hindustani music and Carnatic music (two major branches of Indian classical music), a form of solfège 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 solfège.

Modern use[link]

There are two main types of solfège: #''Movable do'', or ''solfa'', in which each syllable corresponds to a scale degree. This is analogous to the Guidonian practice of giving each degree of the hexachord a solfège name, and is mostly used in Germanic countries. #''Fixed do'', in which each syllable corresponds to the name of a note. This is analogous to the Romance system naming pitches after the solfège syllables, and is used in Romance and Slavic countries, among others.

Movable do solfège[link]

Movable do is frequently employed in Australia, China and Japan (with 7th being si), Ireland, the United Kingdom, the United States, Hong Kong and English-speaking Canada (although a few American conservatories use French-style fixed do). In the movable do system, each solfège 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 solfège 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.

{| style="margin:auto;" border="1" cellpadding="2" |- !Major scale degree !Mova. do solfège syllable !# of half steps from Do !Trad. Pron. !Sato Method !Sato Pron. |- |Lowered 1 | |(-)1, 11 | |De | |- |1 |Do |0 | |Do | |- |Raised 1 |Di |1 | |Di | |- |Lowered 2 |Ra |1 | |Ra | |- |2 |Re |2 | |Re | |- |Raised 2 |Ri |3 | |Ri | |- |Lowered 3 |Me (or Ma) |3 | () |Me | |- |3 |Mi |4 | |Mi | |- |Raised 3 | |5 | |Ma | |- |Lowered 4 | |4 | |Fe | |- |4 |Fa |5 | |Fa | |- |Raised 4 |Fi |6 | |Fi | |- |Lowered 5 |Se |6 | |Se | |- |5 |Sol |7 | |So | |- |Raised 5 |Si |8 | |Si | |- |Lowered 6 |Le (or Lo) |8 | () |Le | |- |6 |La |9 | |La | |- |Raised 6 |Li |10 | |Li | |- |Lowered 7 |Te (or Ta) |10 | () |Te | |- |7 |Ti |11 | |Ti | |- |Raised 7 | |12 | |To | |}

If, at a certain point, the key of a piece modulates, then it is necessary to change the solfège 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.

{| style="margin:auto;" border="1" cellpadding="2" |- !Natural minor scale degree !Movable do solfège syllable (La-based minor) !Movable do solfège syllable (Do-based minor) |- |1 |La |Do |- |Raised 1 |Li |Di |- |Lowered 2 |Te (or Ta) |Ra |- |2 |Ti |Re |- |3 |Do |Me (or Ma) |- |Raised 3 |Di |Mi |- |4 |Re |Fa |- |Raised 4 |Ri |Fi |- |Lowered 5 |Me (or Ma) |Se |- |5 |Mi |Sol |- |6 |Fa |Le (or Lo) |- |Raised 6 |Fi |La |- |7 |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 John Curwen, 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.

Fixed do solfège[link]

In the major Romance and Slavic languages, the syllables Do (Ut for the French), Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, and Si are used 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, solfège 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, Russia, Poland, Serbia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Greece, Albania, Macedonia, Iran, Lebanon, Turkey and Israel where non-Romance languages are spoken.

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".

Comparison of the two systems [link]

Sotorrio 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. 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 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 fixed 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[link]

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:

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" |+Chromatic variants of fixed do |- style="vertical-align:top" !colspan="2"|Note name !colspan="6"|Syllable !rowspan="2"|Pitch class |- style="vertical-align:top; background:#f2f2f2" |''English''||''Romance'' |''Traditional'' |'' '' |''Hullah'' |''Shearer'' |''Siler'' |''Sotorrio'' |- |style="border-top-width:2px"|C |style="border-top-width:2px"|Do |style="border-top-width:2px" rowspan="5"|do |style="border-top-width:2px"|– |style="border-top-width:2px"|duf |style="border-top-width:2px"|daw |style="border-top-width:2px"|du |style="border-top-width:2px"|(pe) |style="border-top-width:2px"|10 |- |C||Do |–||du||de||do||(tsi)||11 |- |C||Do |do||do||do||da||do||0 |- |C||Do |di||da||di||de||ga||1 |- |C||Do |–||das||dai||di||(re)||2 |- style="background:#f2f2f2" |style="border-top-width:2px"|D |style="border-top-width:2px"|Re |style="border-top-width:2px" rowspan="5"|re |style="border-top-width:2px"|– |style="border-top-width:2px"|raf |style="border-top-width:2px"|raw |style="border-top-width:2px"|ru |style="border-top-width:2px"|(do) |style="border-top-width:2px"|0 |- style="background:#f2f2f2" |D||Re |ra||ra||ra||ro||ga||1 |- style="background:#f2f2f2" |D||Re |re||re||re||ra||Re||2 |- style="background:#f2f2f2" |D||Re |ri||ri||ri||re||nu||3 |- style="background:#f2f2f2" |D||Re |–||ris||rai||ri||(mi)||4 |- |style="border-top-width:2px"|E |style="border-top-width:2px"|Mi |style="border-top-width:2px" rowspan="5"|mi |style="border-top-width:2px"|– |style="border-top-width:2px"|mef |style="border-top-width:2px"|maw |style="border-top-width:2px"|mu |style="border-top-width:2px"|(re) |style="border-top-width:2px"|2 |- |E||Mi |me||me||me||mo||nu||3 |- |E||Mi |mi||mi||mi||ma||mi||4 |- |E||Mi |–||mis||mai||me||(fa)||5 |- |E||Mi |–||mish||–||mi||(jur)||6 |- style="background:#f2f2f2" |style="border-top-width:2px"|F |style="border-top-width:2px"|Fa |style="border-top-width:2px" rowspan="5"|fa |style="border-top-width:2px"|– |style="border-top-width:2px"|fof |style="border-top-width:2px"|faw |style="border-top-width:2px"|fu |style="border-top-width:2px"|(nu) |style="border-top-width:2px"|3 |- style="background:#f2f2f2" |F||Fa |–||fo||fe||fo||(mi)||4 |- style="background:#f2f2f2" |F||Fa |fa||fa||fa||fa||Fa||5 |- style="background:#f2f2f2" |F||Fa |fi||fe||fi||fe||jur||6 |- style="background:#f2f2f2" |F||Fa |–||fes||fai||fi||(sol)||7 |- |style="border-top-width:2px"|G |style="border-top-width:2px"|Sol |style="border-top-width:2px" rowspan="5"|sol |style="border-top-width:2px"|– |style="border-top-width:2px"|sulf |style="border-top-width:2px"|saw |style="border-top-width:2px"|su |style="border-top-width:2px"|(fa) |style="border-top-width:2px"|5 |- |G||Sol |se||sul||se||so||jur||6 |- |G||Sol |sol||sol||so||sa||sol||7 |- |G||Sol |si||sal||si||se||ki||8 |- |G||Sol |–||sals||sai||si||(la)||9 |- style="background:#f2f2f2" |style="border-top-width:2px"|A |style="border-top-width:2px"|La |style="border-top-width:2px" rowspan="5"|la |style="border-top-width:2px"|– |style="border-top-width:2px"|lof |style="border-top-width:2px"|law |style="border-top-width:2px"|lu |style="border-top-width:2px"|(sol) |style="border-top-width:2px"|7 |- style="background:#f2f2f2" |A||La |le||lo||le||lo||ki||8 |- style="background:#f2f2f2" |A||La |la||la||la||la||la||9 |- style="background:#f2f2f2" |A||La |li||le||li||le||pe||10 |- style="background:#f2f2f2" |A||La |–||les||lai||li||(tsi)||11 |- |style="border-top-width:2px"|B |style="border-top-width:2px"|Si |style="border-top-width:2px" rowspan="5"|si |style="border-top-width:2px"|– |style="border-top-width:2px"|sef |style="border-top-width:2px"|taw |style="border-top-width:2px"|tu |style="border-top-width:2px"|(la) |style="border-top-width:2px"|9 |- |B||Si |te||se||te||to||pe||10 |- |B||Si |ti||si||ti||ta||tsi||11 |- |B||Si |–||sis||tai||te||(do)||0 |- |B||Si |–||sish||–||ti||(ga)||1 |- style="background:#f2f2f2" |style="border-top-width:2px" colspan="12"|''A dash ("–") means that the source(s) did not specify a syllable. |}

Note names[link]

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 solfège 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).)

Color[link]

Isaac Newton had associated the 7 solfège syllables with the 7 colors of the rainbow and surmised that each color vibrated accordingly. Thus, red has the least amount of vibration while violet vibrates the most.

!Pitch	!Solfege	!Color
C	do	Red
D	re	Orange
E	mi	Yellow
F	fa	Green
G	so	Blue
		Indigo
Blue Violet
		Purple
Red Violet

See also[link]

Numbered musical notation

Ear training

Hexachord

Kodály Method

Solfeggio frequencies

Solmisation, describing similar systems in other cultures

Solresol, a constructed language that had the solfège notes as syllables and could be sung or played as well as spoken.

Sargam

Shape note

Vocable

References[link]

External links[link]

History of Notation by Neil V. Hawes

Various scales with their solfège names and associated hand signs

A search engine for melodies that uses solfège

An online music notation editor for Sargam(the Indian Solfege),ABC, and numbered notation, the Indian solfège

Music theory online: key signatures and accidentals

Music theory online : staffs, clefs & pitch notation

GNU Solfège, a free software program to study solfeggio

Eyes and Ears, an anthology of melodies for practicing sight-singing, available under a Creative Commons license

The advantages of movable ''do'' over fixed ''do''

theSightReadingProject: an interactive database of sight-reading materials (utilizes movable do, la minor)

Sato Method of solfege syllables (a modiffied solfege syllables)

Origin of Do Re Mi singing system 900 AD

Category:Musical notation

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