What are the solfége syllables?

Answer 1

The solfége syllables (solfeggio, IT) are syllables assigned to the notes of the scale.

The origin of the syllabic identification of pitch goes back to Guido d'Arezzo, a monk who was assigned to the job of teaching younger monks their chants. At this time (Guido lived from somewhere around 992 to after 1033AD) memorization of chants was done aurally, with no mnemonic system. Guido is believed by some to have composed a hymn, with each succeeding half-line starting on a rising step of the scale. The words of the hymn were:

Ut queant laxis

resonare fibris,

Mira gestorum

famuli tuorum,

Solve polluti

labii reatum,

Sancte Iohannes.

I have italicized and underlined the first syllable of each half-line (hemistich), which became the names of the notes: ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la. There are only six of them, and much of Music Theory for the next six centuries would be based on the hexachord, which is this string of six notes.

The Medieval and Renaissance music theory system named notes by a combination of syllables. This was created as an extension to the hexachord, to create an individual name for each note from Gamma, which would sit on the bottom line of our modern Grand Staff, to the note that now occupies the top line.

Here is a table of the notes, showing their hexachords:

G-E C-A F-D hard natural soft note name E5 E la -- -- Ela D5 D sol -- la Dlasol C5 C fa -- sol Csolfa B4 B mi -- -- Bmi Bb4 B -- -- fa Bfa A4 A re la mi Alamire G4 G ut sol re Gsolreut F4 F -- fa ut Ffaut E4 E la mi -- Elami D4 D sol re la Dlasolre C4 C fa ut sol Csolfaut B3 B mi -- -- Bmi Bb3 B -- -- fa Bfa A3 A re la mi Alamire G3 G ut sol re Gsolreut F3 F -- fa ut Ffaut E3 E la mi Elami D3 D sol re Dsolre C3 C fa ut Cfaut B2 B mi Bmi A2 A re Are

G2 Gammaut Gammaut

The range of notes encompassed the entire range of usable male vocal notes, and the term Gamut (from Gam-Ut) is now used to describe the entire range of something. The name of each note comes from reading across the gam-ut, starting with the letter, then each syllable from the hexachords Gamma-ut (here spelled without the hyphen) is the lowest note in common usage, roughly the bottom of a Male bass voice range. e-la is the highest. (Latin sylables are pronounced separately, so "Csolfaut" is "C-sol-fa-ut", not kasolfowt.) There are three basic hexachords, starting from Gam-ut, C fa ut, and F fa ut. (ut in each case tells us that this is the first note of one of the hexachords.) The hexachord on G (G, A, B, C, D, E) was considered 'hard', the hexachord on C, natural, and that on F, soft. Each note has an individual name, so the octaves of C are C-fa-ut, C-sol-fa-ut, and C-sol-fa-ut. We have it much easier today!

In the 17th century, theorist Giovanni Battista Doni replaced "ut" with "Do" for singing (from his own family name) because of the more resonant sound provided by "o" over "uh". This has stuck in many countries, and is now considered the syllable for C, or for the tonic in "Moveable Do" systems.

In the 19th century, a seventh syllable was added for the 'leading tone', synthesized from the first letters of the last hemistich "Sancte Iohannes" (Medieval Church Latin lacking the "J" letter form): si. This was not immediately adopted, and though it is now considered part of the solfeggio, it is spelled ti, allowing the notes to be uniquely identified by the starting letter (i.e., avoiding the Sol/Si collision).

Some have added a system for indicating sharps and flats by changing the vowel in the syllable, as well, or by adding the word "sharp" or "flat" to the solfeg syllable.