Editing Solfège (section)

==Origin==
In eleventh-century Italy, the music theorist [[Guido of Arezzo]] invented a notational system that named the six notes of the [[hexachord]] after the first syllable of each line of the Latin [[hymn]] "[[Ut queant laxis]]", the "Hymn to St. [[John the Baptist]]", yielding ''ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la''.<ref name=Davies>Davies, Norman (1997), ''Europe'', pp. 271–272</ref><ref name="McNaught"/> Each successive line of this hymn begins on the next [[scale degree]], so each note's name was the syllable sung at that pitch in this hymn.

[[Image:Ut Queant Laxis MT.png|thumb|Sheet music for "Ut queant laxis"|386x386px]]
<blockquote>
<poem>
<u>'''Ut'''</u> queant laxīs&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<u>'''re'''</u>sonāre fibrīs
<u>'''Mī'''</u>ra gestōrum&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<u>'''fa'''</u>mulī tuōrum,
<u>'''Sol'''</u>ve pollūtī&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<u>'''la'''</u>biī reātum,
Sancte Iohannēs.
</poem>
</blockquote>

The words were ascribed to [[Paulus Diaconus]] in the 8th century. They translate as:

<blockquote>
<poem>
So that your servants may with loosened voices
Resound the wonders of your deeds,
Clean the guilt from our stained lips,
O Saint John.
</poem>
</blockquote>

"Ut" was changed in the 1600s in Italy to the [[open syllable]] Do.<ref name="McNaught">
{{cite journal
  | last       = McNaught
  | first      = W. G.
  | year       = 1893
  | title      = The History and Uses of the Sol-fa Syllables
  | journal    = Proceedings of the Musical Association
  | volume     = 19
  | pages      = 35–51
  | publisher  = Novello, Ewer and Co.
  | location   = London
  | doi = 10.1093/jrma/19.1.35
 | issn       = 0958-8442
  | url        = https://books.google.com/books?id=nNYPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA35
}}
</ref> Guido's system had only six notes, but "si" was added later as the seventh note of the diatonic scale. In [[English people|Anglophone]] countries, "si" was changed to "ti" by [[Sarah Glover]] in the nineteenth century so that every syllable might [[Tonic sol-fa|begin with a different letter]]. "Ti" is used in [[tonic sol-fa]] (and in the famed American show tune "[[Do-Re-Mi]]").

Some authors speculate that the solfège syllables (''do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti'') might have been influenced by the syllables of the [[Arabic music|Arabic]] solmization system called درر مفصّلات ''Durar Mufaṣṣalāt'' ("Detailed Pearls") ([[Arabic alphabet|''dāl, rā', mīm, fā', ṣād, lām, tā''']]). This mixed-origin theory was brought forward by scholars as early as the seventeenth and eighteenth century, in the works of [[Francisci a Mesgnien Meninski]] and [[Jean-Benjamin de La Borde]].<ref>''Thesaurus Linguarum Orientalum'' (1680) {{OCLC|61900507}}</ref><ref>''Essai sur la Musique Ancienne et Moderne'' (1780) {{OCLC|61970141}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Farmer |first=Henry George |author-link=Henry George Farmer |year=1988 |title=Historical facts for the Arabian Musical Influence |publisher=Ayer Publishing |isbn=0-405-08496-X |oclc=220811631 |pages=72–82 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |title=Guido d'Arezzo: Medieval Musician and Educator |first=Samuel D. |last=Miller |journal=Journal of Research in Music Education |volume=21 |issue=3 |date=Autumn 1973 |pages=239–245 |doi=10.2307/3345093 |jstor=3345093 |publisher=MENC_ The National Association for Music Education |s2cid=143833782 }}</ref> Modern scholars are mostly skeptical.<ref>Miller 1973, p. 244.</ref>