Have you ever thought about who invented the musical notation and why exactly Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Si, and what do these letters actually mean? Today Muzobzor will share with you some interesting information about the origin of the notes and reveal the secret of their name.
Monk Guido Aretinsky (Guido d'Arezzo), who lived in 990-1160 AD, is considered the inventor of the world-famous musical notation. Like everything beautiful in those days, musical notation originated near Florence, a small town in Tuscany - Arezzo. A monument to a monk is erected in Florence:
Guido was a teacher of music and church choral singing at various churches, he traveled extensively in Italy, met in Rome with Pope John XIX and worked hard to create a musical literacy that would become generally accepted.
Once, trying to come up with an easier way to memorize unfamiliar melodies for chanting, Guido came up with a solmization system based on the acrostic of prayer to John the Baptist:
UT queant laxis
REsonare fibris
MIra gestorum
Promotional video:
FAmuli tuorum
SOLve polluti
LAbii reatum
Sancte Ioannes
(Translated from Latin: "So that your servants can sing your wonderful deeds with their voices, cleanse the sin from our defiled lips, oh Saint John")
The names of all notes, except the first, end in a vowel sound, they are convenient to sing. The syllable ut is closed and it is impossible to sing it like others. Therefore, the name of the first note of the octave, ut, was changed to do in the sixteenth century (most likely from the Latin word Dominus - Lord).
The modern interpretation of the names of notes looks like this:
Do - Dominus - Lord;
Re - rerum - matter;
Mi - miraculum - miracle;
Fa - familias planetarium - a family of planets, i.e. solar system;
Sol - solis - Sun;
La - lactea via - Milky Way;
Si - siderae - heaven.
Thanks to the authority of Guido, Latin letter notation has established itself as generally accepted in Western Europe and continues to this day.
Among other things, Guido also owes a great deal of merit to the progress of the written part of musical notation. During the performance of the choir, Guido used his left hand to indicate notes, bending the joints of his fingers, he indicated which note to play at one time or another:
Subsequently, Guido began to mark sounds with notes (from the Latin word nota - sign). The notes, shaded squares, were placed on the stave, consisting of four parallel lines. Now there are five of these lines, and the notes are depicted in a circle, not a square, but the principle introduced by Guido has remained unchanged.
