We are already accustomed to the fact that notes have always been the way we know them. But where did their names come from? What's the point?
The staff of the staff has its own curious history. For the first time, the 6th century Neoplatonist philosopher Boethius decided to write notes using Latin symbols. He used Roman letters to write notes of the two-octave range, and it looked like this: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNO.
Boethius expounded his musical theoretical reasoning in the treatise "Instructions in Music". For him, music was synonymous with harmony, and harmony is inseparable from God as the highest principle.
Boethius.
Boethius' system existed before the appearance of another prominent theorist Guido d'Arezzo (990-1050). It is he who is the author of the names of notes familiar to us. The process of assigning syllables to notes was called solmisatio ("solmization", from the names of the notes sol and mi). The Archbishop of Seville Isidore said that if you do not memorize the sounds, do not write them down, they will die, no matter how beautiful they are. The Benedictine monk Guido took on such a role. He came up with a way to memorize the many sacred melodies easier.
Monument to Guido Arentinsky.
Source: htt The first years he spent in the monastery in Pompos. His work brought him respect and fame, but at the same time the envy of the monks of his own monastery. Because of this, Guido was forced to leave for Arezzo. There he created a textbook for choristers of the local cathedral. His innovative ideas caught the attention of Pope John XIX. Soon the monk was transferred to Rome.
Guido noticed that thanks to his system, the monks could easily reproduce the melody. In order to distinguish between high and low sounds, Guido drew five lines of notes. This is how people have since started recording music.
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For the names of the notes, he took the first syllables of the Gregorian hymn, Ut queant laxis.
In translation it means: "So that the servants of your deeds can sing miracles in a full voice, take away sin from their lips, Saint John."
"Love Song". Jean Antoine Watteau.
The si note joined all the others only in the 18th century. It was made up of the first letters of the last line - Sancte Iohannes. Also, the first ut was changed to do. This act is attributed to Giovanni Battista Doni, who allegedly simply took the first letters of his last name. He had to be noted somehow.
Pavel Romanutenko
