Solfège

In music, solfège (]

If, at a certain point, the key of a piece modulates, then it is necessary to change the solfège syllables at that point. For example, if a piece begins in C major, then C is initially sung on "do", D on "re", etc.. If, however, the piece then modulates to G, then G is sung on “Do”, A on “re”, etc., and C is then sung on “fa".

Passages in a minor key may be sol-faed in one of two ways in movable do: either starting on do (using "me", "le", and "te" for the lowered third, sixth, and seventh degrees, and "la" and "ti" for the raised sixth and seventh degrees), or starting on la (using "fi" and "si" for the raised sixth and seventh degrees). The latter is sometimes preferred in choral singing, especially with children.

One particularly important variant of movable do, but differing in some respects from the system here described, was invented in the nineteenth century by John Curwen, and is known as tonic sol-fa.

In Italy, in 1972, Roberto Goitre wrote the famous method "Cantar leggendo", which has come to be used for choruses and for music for young children.

olfège in popular culture

*Woody Guthrie's song Do-Re-Mi uses the term as a slang word for "money", rather than musical method.
*"Do-Re-Mi" is a song featured in the musical "The Sound of Music". Within the story, Maria uses the song to teach the notes of the major musical scale to the Von Trapp children, by identifying six of the solfège syllables, Do Re Mi Fa So and Ti with the English words "doe", "ray", "me", "far", "sew" and "tea"; La is called "a note to follow So". Each syllable of the diatonic scale appears as solfège in its lyrics, sung on the pitch it names.
*"The Music Man" used solfège in its music, especially in "Shipoopi".
*A Japanese animated series with a musical theme is known as "Ojamajo Doremi", with the English language version known as "Magical DoReMi". In the Japanese series it is about a girl named Doremi and two of her friends, but the dub changed their names to Dorie, Reanne, and Mirabelle. In the original, Doremi's name was to reflect solfège, but in the English version, the first syllables of all their names together make solfège. In the episode "Dustin' the Old Rusty Broom", when they make over the Rusty Broom, they call it the DoReMi Magic Shop, naming it after the first syllables of their names. Patina complains that it's her shop, but Dorie says, "We were going to call it DoReMiPa, but that wouldn't sound right." The fairies in said show are known as Dodo, Rae Rae (Rere in the Japanese version), Mimi, and so forth, all given to reflect solfège as well.
*Hawkwind named their 1972 album "Doremi Fasol Latido".
* The Curwen hand signals are used in the climactic scene of the film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" when François Truffaut's character communicates with the alien being.
*"Solfeggio" was the name of a song used in a comedy sketch featuring The Nairobi Trio on Ernie Kovacs's television show. The lyrics of the song featured the solfège tones and was played while three cast members dressed in trench coats, gorilla masks and bowler hats engaged in silly situations on-screen. Among Kovacs' celebrity friends both Jack Lemmon and Frank Sinatra are known to have performed in the skit. Seated at screen right at a piano was a female simian (often Kovacs' wife, Edie Adams), robotically thumping the keys. "Solfeggio" was written by Robert Maxwell and sung by the Ray Charles Singers.
*"The Aristocats" has a section that is a music lesson with scales and arpeggios in French.
*A song by The Enright House, on their album "A Maze and Amazement", is entitled "Do Re Mi" (a tribute to the American opera singer, Brenda Roberts).
* The Greek entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1977, "Mathima Solfege", is about a solfège lesson.
* The Japanese rock band Asian Kung-Fu Generation released an album titled "Sol-fa".
* The Kokiri, a fictional elf-like race from the "Legend of Zelda" game series who are largely named after blends of solfège tones.
* A group of genetically enhanced individuals teach their friend to speak properly, who was mute up until then because of problems with her genetic enhancement, in by singing the scale and teaching it to her.
* The American jazz clarinettist Irving Fazola (1912-1949) took his last name from "fa", "so", and "la". Born Irving Prestopnik, he was given the nickname "Fazola" as a child because of his musical abilities.
* The sung libretto to Philip Glass's Einstein on the Beach is entirely in numbers and fixed do solfege syllables.
* Composer Karl Jenkins used solfège in his 1997 album in the song Chorale VI

References

See also

*Solresol, a constructed language that had the solfège notes as syllables and could be sung or played as well as spoken.
*Vocable
*Sargam

External links

* [http://www.neilhawes.com/sstheory/theory22.htm History of Notation] by Neil V. Hawes
* [http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/appendix/scales/solmization/syllables.html Various scales with their solfège names and associated hand signs]
* [http://www.everity.com/~gheller A search engine for melodies that uses solfège]
* [http://www.ragapedia.com An online music notation editor for Sargam, the Indian solfège]
* [http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory9.htm#notesandkeys Music theory online: key signatures and accidentals]
* [http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory1.htm#francobelgic Music theory online : staffs, clefs & pitch notation]
* [http://www.solfege.org/ GNU Solfège, a free software program to study solfeggio]
* [http://www.lightandmatter.com/sight/sight.html Eyes and Ears, an anthology of melodies for practicing sight-singing, available under a Creative Commons license]