"David Webber" <dave@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:fq62sr$n8q$1$8300dec7@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> "Steve Latham" <llatham@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> news:Fjkxj.31703$6h7.17605@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
>> The Greeks used letter names like Alpha Beta, Chi, and so on for their
>> notes. The lowest note was Gamma, and the highest was Ut, and that is
>> where we get the word "Gamut" - when something "runs the Gamut" it is
>> akin to running the entire length of the scale.
>
> Gamut does apparently come from Gamma and Ut but...
>
> ...the Greeks didn't have Ut.
I wasn't positive - I knew it was Latin, but thought it was adopted.
>
> I think it was Guido d'Arezzo (11th century) who took the first
syllables
> of lines of the "Hymn to St John"
>
> *Ut queant laxis,
> *Re-sonare fibris
> *Mi-ra gestorum
> *Fa-muli tuorum
> *Sol-ve polluti
> *La-bii reatum
> Sanc-*te Ioannes.
I think he just used 6 though, and someone added "si" or "ti" later -
Guido
is associated with the Guidonian Hexachord, and he probably had no need to
name a 7th note :-). But you're probably right - Ut may have come from
here
first.
>
> to form the Solfa syllables. Ut is clearly Latin - and the only one
which
> is a whole Latin word! :-) The word "gamut" originates
significantly
> later I believe, and it seems odd to me that they coined it partly from
> gamma.
That's what I thought to - I thought Ut was a Greek letter name, or at
least
part of one, and it was just coincidental that there's a Latin companion
that began this chant.
>
> In the latin system Ut (now Doh) Re Mi .... are associated with our
> CDE... Though i don't at this moment know why Ut/doh became C - though
why
> not?
I think (I'm pretty certain) in the chant you mention above, the Ut was in
fact on a C note, so that's how they fell.
>
> The moveable Doh system (our tonic Solfa) is much more recent (19th
> century?).
Or maybe even 20th century? Though Guido used moveable haxachords, so Ut
was
either C, F or G, for the natural, soft, and hard hexachords. It's called
"mutation" (which is akin to later modulation), so the principle for
moveable Do was certainly already around.
>
> I don't know what the mode was of the first piece Guido used this on,
but
> it wouldn't have been major, as that only came along several centuries
> later.
Right, it may have been Dorian or whatever (or possibly even Ionian in
modal
form) but Ut was a C note, Re was a D note, and so on.
Thanks for clarifying.
Steve
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