>Guido d'Arezzo introduced the syllables *ut re mi fa sol la* as names >for the tones *c-a*. Later *ut* was replaced with *do* and *si* >(now *ti*) added to complete the octave. Now we have a kind of >notation, which we migth say Guido d'Arezzo invented, but a very >limited one because written down you only see height but not length >of tones. > >Cortez
You may come from a country which uses fixed do terminology. But Guido's system of hexachords was actually the first moveable do system. The six syllables were used equally for the c-a hexachord, the f-d hexachord (with Bb), and the g-e hexachord (with B natural). The key to his system as far as teaching students to read music was the half step in the middle of each hexachord, thereby establishing the "mi-fa" halfstep with e-f, a-Bb, and b-c. He may have picked up the hexachord idea from Daesian notation using tetrachords with a halfstep in the middle, which appears in the "Musica enchiriadis" of the mid-9th century. He needed the three overlapping hexachords because he had to deal with both Bb and B natural and keep that central halfstep relationship. Thus, a "moveable ut" system. He had no need to "complete the octave" because musicians of his time did not think in those terms. His "gamut" included all the notes used in chant, and no more; they did not think in terms of octaves that continue both up and down into infinity, or of a fully chromatic system of which his gamut was simply a subset. Do not judge the 11th century by the 21st! He adapted the neumatic notation that had been in use for about a century in some places, regularized the lines scored across the page by some scribes into a 4-line staff, and labeled the staff lines by using moveable C and F clefs. He was not concerned with notating durations because he was dealing exclusively with chant melodies. The system he created was so good for its intended purposes that it remained in use almost unchanged for six centuries. He took a number of ideas that were floating around and put them together in a new way. John John & Susie Howell Virginia Tech Department of Music Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A. 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
