arezzo

Guido d' Arezzo

This is guido and st. francis viewing something. Take my word for it.

or Guido Aretinus

c.990–1050, Italian Benedictine monk

known for his contributions to musical notation and theory. His theoretical work Micrologus (c.1025) is one of the principal sources of our knowledge of organum, an early form of polyphony. His work in musical notation included the addition of two lines (one red, one yellow) to the two already serving as a staff and the use of both the lines and the spaces. Also important was his system of solmization (sometimes called, after him Aretinian syllables), whereby the syllables ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la are used as names for the six tones, C to A, known as the hexachord. As the octave replaced the hexachord, an additional syllable, si or ti, was added, and eventually ut was replaced by the more singable do. Other revisions of Guido's system that have been suggested from time to time have not survived.

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               Columbia University Press. Licensed from Inso Corporation.
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Guido's Hand

The Hand of Guido (also known as the Guidonian Hand) is based on the solmization which Guido is credited with having developed c.1025. The syllable names are based on the hymn:

ut queant laxis

resonare fibris

mira storum

famuli tuorum

solve polluti

labii reatum

Sancte Joannes!

Since the hymn ascends from one note of the scale to another at the beginning of each line as the music proceeds, the association between each scale tone and the syllable at the beginning of the line.

guido apparently pointed to positions on his hand corresponding to this system to instruct the choir what to sing. good damn thing we replaced "ut" with "do"
Imagine the "sound of music".

"UT.........a deer a fe-male deer"

doesn't have quite the same ring to it, somehow.
so now you know. don't ask me again.

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