I’m talking about “do re mi fa so la ti do” here. Is it from another language? Or did they just make them up for “The Sound of Music?”
The original syllables were derived from a hymn, and were Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La. In the hymn, the first syllable of each line is a step higher in the scale. Guido d’Arezzo is credited with this development in the eleventh century. This page explains it:
http://ocelot.cc.purdue.edu/~raybro/solmization.html
Here is the original source verse:
ut queant laxis
resonare fibris
mira storum
famuli tuorum
solve polluti
labii reatum
Sancte Joannes!
I always thought it was Pythagoras because he invented the octave.
But, I see now the sounds are more Latin than Greek.
What words did he use?
Or did he just number the notes.
Translation? Anyone?
According to
http://www.princeton.edu/~simundza/wmus101/india.html
these are the equivalent syllables in Hindustani music:
sa, re, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni
You can also go to a good Encyclopaedia Britannica article, by joining the two URL halves below (yes, one day I’ll learn to embed links in text, but not today):
http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/
0/0,5716,118774+14+110127,00.html
By the way, Pythogoras didn’t really invent the octave. Octaves exist in nearly all forms of music; just blow really hard on a recorder and you should get an octave. Pythogoras invented a tempered scale.
Translation I found at another site:
St. John Hymn “Ut queant laxis” [ca. 800 A.D.]
That your servants
May freely sing
The miracles
Of your deeds
Remove all stains of sin
From their unclean lips
Saint John!
Okay, the first half of that Britannica URL looks like a URL in its own right, but you should still paste in the second half from the line below.
This article raises some interesting questions. If so many musical systems have solmization, did they come from the same source? Did some of them?
Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti (modern)
Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, ? (Latin)
Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni (Indian)
I think both Indian and European musical traditions come in large part from ancient Persia. That would explain common words for certain stringed instruments:
Guitar (modern)
Cittern (medieval British?)
Zither (Austrian)
Sitar (Hindustani)
Chitarra (medieval Italian)
So perhaps the music originating from Persian expanded into the same geographic area that the Indo-European languages expanded into.
That doesn’t explain Chinese solmization, of course, but I didn’t notice any clear similarities between that as presented in the Britannica link and the Indo-European solmization schemes.
Wow, thanks for the quick answer! Sounds like it’s right on the money.