A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Sol-fa

by George Grove

SOL-FA. 'To sol-fa' is to sing a passage or a piece of vocal music, giving to the notes, not the words, but the syllables, Do (C), Re (D), Mi (E), Fa (F), Sol (G), La (A), Si (B), Do (C). Why the two syllables Sol and Fa should have been chosen to designate this process in preference to Do Re, or Re Mi, does not appear.

♭	♮	♯
Du	Do	Da
Ra	Re	Ri
Me	Mi	—
Fo	Fa	Fe
Sul	Sol	Sal
Lo	La	Le
Se	Si	—

It may be convenient here to give the scale with the syllables for sharps or flats, as fixed by Mr. Hullah in his 'Method of Teaching Singing' (Longmans, 1880).

In a hymn recently written by Arrigo Boito and composed by Mancinelli, for the opening of the monument of Guido d'Arezzo at Rome, the seven syllables are thus employed:—

Util di Guido regola superna
Misuratrice facile de' suoni
Solenne or tu laude a te stessa intuoni,
Silaba eterna.

The roll or stick with which the conductors of church choirs in Italy beat the time is called the Sólfa.

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