A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Ut, Re, Mi

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3926077A Dictionary of Music and Musicians — Ut, Re, MiGeorge GroveWilliam Smyth Rockstro


​UT, RE, MI (Modern Ital. Do, re, mi). The three first syllables of the 'Guidonian system of Solmisation.'[1]

Whether Guido d'Arezzo did, or did not, invent the system which, for more than eight centuries, has borne his name, is a question which has given rise to much discussion. A critical examination of the great Benedictine's own writings proves that many of the discoveries with which he has been credited were well known to Musicians, long before his birth; while others were certainly not given to the world until long after his death. We know, for instance, that he neither invented the Monochord, nor the Clavier, though tradition honours him as the discoverer of both. Still, it is difficult to agree with those who regard him as 'a mythical abstract.' Though he writes with perfect clearness, where technical questions are concerned, he speaks of himself, and his method of teaching, in terms so naïves and familiar, that we cannot afford to despise any additional light that tradition may throw upon them. We know that he first used the six famous syllables. Tradition asserts, that, from this small beginning, he developed the whole method of Solmisation in seven Hexaehords,[2] and the Harmonic (or Guidonian) Hand. Let us see how far the tradition is supported by known facts.

In a letter, addressed to his friend Brother Michael, about the year 1025, Guido speaks of the value, as an aid to memory, of the first six hemistichs of the Hymn for the festival of S. John the Baptist, 'Ut queant laxis.' 'If, therefore,' he says, 'you would commit any sound, or Neuma, to memory, to the end that, wheresoever you may wish, in whatsoever Melody, whether known to you or unknown, it may quickly present itself, so that you may at once enuntiate it, without any doubt, you must note that sound, or Neuma, in the beginning of some well-known Tune. And because, for the purpose of retaining every sound in the memory, after this manner, it is necessary to have ready a Melody which begins with that same sound, I have used the Melody which follows, for teaching children, from first to last.[3]

{ \new Staff << \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \override Score.Clef #'stencil = ##f \time 8/2 \stopStaff \chords { c2 d f d8 e2 d } \new Voice { \hideNotes c2 c c c8 c2 c } >> \addlyrics { \small UT que -- ant lax -- _ is } }
{ \new Staff << \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \override Score.Clef #'stencil = ##f \time 8/2 \stopStaff \chords { d2 d c d e e } \new Voice { \hideNotes c2 c c c c c } >> \addlyrics { \small RE -- so -- na -- re fi -- bris } }
{ \new Staff << \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \override Score.Clef #'stencil = ##f \time 8/2 \stopStaff \chords { e8 f g2 e d e8 c2 d } \new Voice { \hideNotes c8 c c2 c c c8 c2 c } >> \addlyrics { \small Mi -- _ _ ra ges -- to -- _ rum } }
{ \new Staff << \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \override Score.Clef #'stencil = ##f \time 8/2 \stopStaff \chords { \set chordNameLowercaseMinor = ##t f2 g a:m g8 f e d2 d } \new Voice { \hideNotes c2 c c c8 c c c2 c } >> \addlyrics { \small FA -- mu -- li tu -- _ _ o -- rum } }
{ \new Staff << \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \override Score.Clef #'stencil = ##f \time 8/2 \stopStaff \chords { \set chordNameLowercaseMinor = ##t g2 a:m f8 g e2 f g d } \new Voice { \hideNotes c2 c c8 c c2 c c c } >> \addlyrics { \small SOL -- _ ve _ _ pol -- lu -- ti } }
{ \new Staff << \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \override Score.Clef #'stencil = ##f \time 8/2 \stopStaff \chords { \set chordNameLowercaseMinor = ##t a2:m g a:m f g a:m a:m } \new Voice { \hideNotes c2 c c c c c c } >> \addlyrics { \small LA -- bi -- i re -- a -- _ tum } }
{ \new Staff << \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \override Score.Clef #'stencil = ##f \time 8/2 \stopStaff \chords { g8 f2 e8 d2 c e d } \new Voice { \hideNotes c8 c2 c8 c2 c c c } >> \addlyrics { \small Sanc -- _ te _ Io -- an -- nes. } }

'You see, therefore,' continues Guido, 'that this Melody begins, as to its six divisions, with six different sounds. He then, who, through practice, can attain the power of leading off, with certainty, the beginning of each division, whichever he may desire, will be in a position to strike these six sounds easily, wheresoever he may meet with them.'[4]

The directions here given, by Guido himself, clearly indicate the Solmisation of a typical Hexachord—the Hexachordon naturale—by aid of the six initial syllables of the Hymn. Did he carry out the development of his original idea? Tradition asserts that he did, that he extended its application to the seven Hexachords, in succession, and even to their Mutations;[5] illustrating his method by the help of the Harmonic Hand. And the tradition is supported by the testimony of Sigebertus Gemblacensis, who, writing in 1113, says, in his 'Chronicon,' under the year 1028, that 'Guido indicated these six sounds by means of the finger-joints of the left hand, following out the rising and falling of the same, with eye and ear, throughout a full Octave.' Guido himself, it is true, never recurs to the subject. But he does tell Brother Michael, in another part of his letter, that 'these things, though difficult to write about, are easily explained by word of mouth';[6] and surely, with Sigebert's testimony before us, we can scarcely escape the conclusion that he really did afterwards explain the fuller details of his system to his friend, vivâ voce, and teach them in his school. But, whether he did this or not, he has at least said enough to ​convince us that it was he who first endeavoured to remove 'the cross of the little Choir-Boys, and the torture of learners' (crux tenelloram puerorum, et tortura discentium), by the use of the syllables, Ut, Re, Mi, Fa; and that to him, and to him alone, belongs the honour of having invented, even if he did not perfect, the method of Solmisation which still bears his name.

The Hymn 'Ut queant laxis' is given, in modern notation, in vol. iii. p. 550. The poetry is known to have been written by Paulus Diaconus, though Albertus Magnus attributes it to S. Jerome—a fact which did not escape the sharp observation of Hermann Finck. The Melody is a very early one, in Mode II. (the Hypodorian). A comparatively late Gallican version is given in the Mechlin Vesperal (1870). The version given in the latest Roman Vesperal (Ratisbon, 1875) is scarcely recognisable, and does not comply with Guido's conditions in any of its sections except the second.

[ W. S. R. ]

  1. ↑ See Solmisation.
  2. ↑ See Hexachord.
  3. ↑ 'Si quam ergo vocem vel neumam vis ita memoriae commendare, ut ubicumque velis, in quocumque cantu, quem scias vel nescias, tibi mox possit occurrere, quatenus mox ilium indubitanter possis enuntiare, debes ipsam vocem vel neumam in capite alicuius notissimae symphoniae notare. Et pro una quoque voce memoriae retinenda huiusmodi symphoniam in promtù habere, quae ab eadem voce incipiat: ut pote sit haec symphonia, qua ego docendis pueris imprimis atque etiam in ultimis utor.'
  4. ↑ 'Vides itaque, ut haec symphonia senis particulis suis a sex diversis incipiat vocibus? Si quis itaque uniuscuiusque particulae caput ita exercitatus noverit, ut confestim quamcumque particulam voluerit, indubitanter incipiat, easdem sex voces ubicumque viderit secundum suas proprietates facile pronuntiare poterit.'
  5. ↑ See Mutation; also the Table of Hexachords, vol. i. p. 734b.
  6. ↑ 'Quae omnia cum vix litteris utcumque significemus, facilitatum colloquio denudamus.'
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