Do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si: the origin of the names of the notes dates back to the Middle Ages and the
method developed by Guido d’Arezzo. In the following centuries, the role assumed
from Italy in the birth of opera and the development of instrumental music
helped spread terms such as allegro, adagio, beyond the borders of the peninsula
slowly and growing.
An American pianist, a Japanese violinist and a Finnish conductor
they may not know Italian, but in front of a score they understand words like
cheerful, adagio, strong, soft and growing. A fundamental part of the vocabulary of the
Western music in fact derives from our language and continues to be used in
schools, in conservatories and in international concert halls. Italian Traditions retraces the
origins of this legacy, born in medieval monasteries and consolidated in the centuries in which Italy
became one of the main musical centers of Europe.
This story initially leads to the 11th century, when learning liturgical chant
still depended to a large extent on oral transmission. The manuscripts contained signs
called neumes, useful for suggesting the progression of the melody, but not always sufficient to
establish the pitch of the sounds exactly. To learn a very broad repertoire, young people
singers therefore had to exercise their memory for a long time, under the guidance of a master.
Guido d’Arezzo, monk and music theorist, profoundly modified this system
active in the first half of the 11th century. Not all information about his biography is certain,
but its connection with the Abbey of Pomposa, near Codigoro, is documented
in the current province of Ferrara. The monastery was then an important religious center and
cultural, in which he was able to dedicate himself to the training of singers and experiment with new instruments
didactic. He later moved to Arezzo, where he continued his activity under the protection
of Bishop Theodald.
The monk contributed to the refinement of line writing, placing musical signs on
lines that allowed us to recognize the pitch of sounds. The tetragrammaton, made up of four
lines and still used today for Gregorian chant, it represented a fundamental step
towards the next staff. The new method allowed you to tackle a melody
unknown with greater autonomy, reducing the time required to learn it and
making its transmission more reliable.
His most famous innovation, however, concerned the association between sounds and syllables. To teach
the intervals Guido used the initial stanza of the Latin hymn to St. John the Baptist, Ut
queant laxis. Musical phrases began on progressively higher degrees and their first
syllables provided an easily memorable sequence:
Ut queant laxis
Resonate fibris
Mira gestorum
Famuli tuorum
Solve polluti
Labii reatum,
Sancte Iohannes
From the initial syllables were born Ut, D, E, F, G and A. It wasn’t yet about the seven notes
understood in the modern sense, but of the syllables used to recognize the positions of sounds
within a sequence of six degrees, called a hexachord. The process, known as
solmization, helped the singer to correctly identify tones and semitones and to intone
even melodies never heard before. Guido described its principles in the Epistle to
Michaelem, while in the Micrologus, one of the most widespread musical treatises of the Middle Ages, illustrated
other aspects of your method.
The Si was introduced later and its name was taken from the initials of Sancte Iohannes, the
last words of the stanza. Even the C did not belong to the original system: for centuries the
initial syllable remained Ut. In the seventeenth century, in Italy, it was progressively replaced by Do,
easier to articulate and support while singing. The modification is traditionally
connected to the theorist Giovanni Battista Doni, even if its diffusion was gradual. In France
ut has remained in use in some contexts, while in Anglo-Saxon and Germanic countries the heights
musical are normally indicated by letters of the alphabet.
It is therefore not entirely accurate to say that the notes have Italian names everywhere. In the world
English-speaking, for example, the corresponding sequence is C, D, E, F, G, A, B. The syllables do, re,
mi, fa, sol, la, are still used internationally in solfeggio, according to
modes which vary from country to country. In some systems the do always corresponds to the same
pitch, while in others it indicates the first degree of any shade.
Italian conquered an even larger role in music between the sixteenth and the
Eighteenth century. Florence was one of the places where, at the end of the 16th century, the first
experiments in melodrama; Venice developed a lively theatrical and musical activity;
Rome, Bologna and Naples became the sites of schools, conservatories and production centres.
Italian composers, singers and instrumentalists worked in the major European courts, while
genres such as opera, sonata, cantata and concerto spread outside the peninsula.
The words used to indicate time, intensity and
character of the execution. Wide, adagio, andante, allegro and soon they suggested different
speed; flat and strong regulated volume; growing and decreasing signaled variations
gradual. Expressions as in tempo, da capo, cantabile, with brio, sostenuto and staccato
offered further instructions to the interpreter. The prestige of Italian tradition meant that this
lexicon was also adopted by authors of other nationalities and established itself as a convention
common.
From the nineteenth century onwards, several composers preferred to write the indications in their own
tongue. Thus German, French, Russian and, later, English terms appeared in the scores.
However, Italian did not lose its function: even today it constitutes the basis of the vocabulary
international music, especially in the classical repertoire, and also occurs in the names of the
voices, such as soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, tenor, baritone and bass.
Behind words that are now familiar, a history that has lasted almost a thousand years is preserved. From the
needs of medieval singers to the innovations of Guido d’Arezzo, from Italian theatres to
contemporary orchestras, music has built a language capable of transcending borders
national. Whenever a sheet music asks you to play softly, to perform a passage
cheerful or to proceed in crescendo, part of that long journey is making itself felt again.