Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act or a system of using syllables, especially sol-fa syllables, to represent the tones of the scale.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In music, the act, process, or result of using certain syllables to name or represent the tones of the scale, or of a particular series, as the scale of C.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Mus.) The act of sol-faing.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Alternative spelling of solmisation.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a system of naming the notes of a musical scale by syllables instead of letters
  • noun singing using solfa syllables to denote the notes of the scale of C major

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French solmisation, from solmiser, to sol-fa : sol, note of the scale (from Medieval Latin; see gamut) + mi, note of the scale (from Medieval Latin; see gamut).]

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Examples

  • Boethius's gesture might be interpreted as arithmetic counting; however, since his presence points also to the discipline of music, the gesture might allude to the mnemonic finger notation devised by Guido d'Arezzo (ca. 990 – 1050) for solmization. back

    Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008

  • Gombert was not above occasional solmization puns as on the words ‘ut’ and ‘sol’ in O gloriosa Dei genitrix.

    Archive 2009-06-01 Lu 2009

  • From about 1800, singing-school tunebooks bagan to be published in a four-shape system of shaped noteheads corresponding to the then current Elizabethan solfa solmization.

    The Southern Harmony 1809-1875 1966

  • He is generally credited with having invented the art of solmization, the introduction of the staff, the use of the hand for teaching intervals, and the introduction of notes.

    A Popular History of the Art of Music From the Earliest Times Until the Present 1874

  • Josquin also paid homage to Duke Ercole in one of his Mass settings; it is built round an eight-note melody derived from the syllables ‘Her-cu-les Dux Fer-ra-ri-e’ ‘Ercole, Duke of Ferrara’, which are translated by assonance of vowels into the solmization syllables re–ut–re–ut–re–la–mi–re.

    Archive 2009-05-01 Lu 2009

  • (which were simply a series of notes forming a little melody sung to two or three words), the voice was rarely called upon to progress more than the interval of a sixth, and so this solmization, as the new system was called, was very valuable; for one had only to give the pitch, and _ut_ always meant the keynote, _re_ the second, _mi_ the third, etc., etc. In time

    Critical and Historical Essays Lectures delivered at Columbia University Edward MacDowell 1884

  • Ratisbon, 1725); "De musica tractatus", a very interesting treatise on music, illustrating the great difficulties with which teachers of music were beset in consequence of the complicated system of the hexachord with its solmization and mutation.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 5: Diocese-Fathers of Mercy 1840-1916 1913

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