UT, RE. MI. 



771 



semitones to the various tetrachords could not well 

 be determined ; and hence a false intonation was 

 almost always the consequence. In dividing the 

 compass of the tones then in use, he employed, in- 

 stead of the Greek tetrachords (a series of from 

 four to four tones), the hexachords (a series of six 

 tones), of which the first began with C, the second 

 with F, the third with G, which hexachords con- 

 tained the whole compass (called, by the Greeks a 

 diagram) of the diatonic tones then in use. Each 

 of his hexachords contained six diatonic tones, which 

 he named from the initial syllables of the hemistichs 

 of a hymn to St John the Baptist, probably in order 

 to exercise his pupils in the distinct pronunciation 

 of the vowels. The syllables which he used were 

 the italicized ones of the following lines : 



Vt queant laxis .Resonare fibris 

 SI t'ra g-estorum Famuli tuorum, 

 Solve polluti Labii reatum, 

 Sancte Johannes. 



Thus originated the mode of designating the six dia- 

 tonic tones, C, D, E, F, G, A, by the syllables ut, 

 re, mi, fa, sol, la. After Guide's time, the syllable 

 si (the initial letters of Sancte Johannes, in the last 

 line of the above strophe) was added for the sound 

 B of our scale, in order to fill the scale up to the 

 octave ; and, as the increasing extent of the com- 

 pass of the tones required, the number of hexa- 

 chords, or rather heptachords was augmented. But 

 as, according to the fundamental rule of Guido's 

 solemnization, the syllables mi, fa, must always fall 

 upon the semitones, as this is established by the 

 first hexachord in respect to the semitone E (mi), 

 F (/a), and subsequent hexachords are to be so ar- 

 ranged that mi, fa, shall always be given to a semi- 

 tone ; and this change of the commencement of a 

 new hexachord is called mutation. To the muta- 

 tion it is owing that every syllable not only deter- 

 mines one tone, but that the tones are sometimes 

 designated by one sometimes by another syllable, 

 according to the situation of the semitones (mi fa), 

 as mi must always be preceded by re. We must 

 further observe that the seventh syllable, si, in ge- 

 neral, only designates the seventh tone, so that it 

 is taken for B as well as B flat, but it is not reck- 

 oned in the hexachord. If we therefore put several 

 such hexachords one under the other, according to 

 the rule of mutation, thus, 



C D E F G A H* or, Bbcdefga &c., 



ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, - 



ut, re, mi, - 



ut, re, nrf, 



FV Eigtifh B. 



fa, sol, la, - - - - 



fa, sol, la, - - - 



ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, &c., 



the tone C receives the appellation ut, sol, fa, the 

 tone D the syllables re, la, sol, &c. ; hence the 

 Italians designate the six tones of the hexachord 

 (named, in English and German, from these letters 

 of the alphabet) in the following way : 



German appellation, 

 Italian, . 

 German, . 

 Italian, . 



d 



la, sol, re, 



e 

 la, mi. 



sol, fa, ut, 



f g a 



fa, ut, sol, re, ut, la, mi, re, 



The German H (the English B), the lower semi- 

 tone of C, the Italians call B mi, and the German 



B (the H lowered by [}) they call B/a. The 

 tones elevated by $ they designate by the addi- 

 tional word diesis ; for example, C|| is called sol, 

 fa, ut, diesis ; Djf is called la, sol, re, diesis, &c. 

 Tones lowered by [) they designate by bemolle ; for 

 example, D j^ is called la, sol, re, bemolle ; E (^ is 

 called la, mi, bemolle, &c. In singing, the Italians, 

 moreover, use, instead of the syllable ut, the sylla- 

 ble do i hence not ut, re, mi, c., but do, re, mi, 

 &c. The French, likewise, still use Guido's names 

 of tones, but not in the same way with the Italians ; 

 because, with the former, each syllable signifies the 

 tone of the natural scale only ; hence ut signifies 

 only C, re only D, &c. With them, also, H is not 

 called B mi, but only si ; and our BK not B/a, but 

 si bemolle, as they also call the flat tones bemolle, 

 and the sharp ones diese ; for example, D \) , E ^ , 

 A|^, &c., re bemolle, mi bemolle, la bemolle ; and 

 C$, D$, F$, &c., ut diese, re diese, fa diese, &c. 

 Guido is said, moreover, to have introduced the 

 notes or point upon five lines, one above the other, 

 in order to designate by them the heights which had 

 previously been indicated by Latin letters. He also 

 enriched music by the invention of the C and F 

 clefs, and increased the diagramma of the Greeks, 

 consisting of fifteen chords, to twenty-one (two 

 octaves and a sixth 



which system, since that time, after the Greek 

 grammars also been called scala, or main harmonique 

 (harmonic hand). The latter name arose from the 

 circumstance that Guido had, in order to assist the 

 student, drawn a left hand, on the fingers of which 

 were marked by letters, the tones of the harpsichord, 

 according to the rules of the changes which it was 

 necessary to adopt before the addition of the seventh 

 tone (si, or H), in order to rise or fall beyond the 

 six tones used according to the ancient way in the 

 solfeggio, (q. v.) He further determined the ex- 

 tent, the proportion and the intervals, as well of 

 the octaves among each other as of the fifths and 

 fourths. He is likewise said to have invented the 

 polyplectrum, or spinnet. These inventions and dis- 

 coveries, which have had the greatest influence upon 

 the development of harmony, have been, however, 

 in part denied to him, and are said by some to have 

 been made at an earlier period, by others at a later. 

 The establishment of the musical scale, however, 

 is undeniably his, and has been of the greatest im- 

 portance, as affording the means of learning that well 

 within a few weeks which formerly could be ac- 

 quired only by the zealous application of years. 

 Of his life we only know that he had to suffer much 

 from enemies, envious of his fame, and therefore 

 was obliged to leave his convent for some time, and 

 to retire to his native city. He was much favoured 

 by popes Benedict VIII. and John XIX. or XX. : 

 and the decree of this latter pope silenced at last 

 the enemies of this great and learned inventor. On 

 his return from Rome, he settled in the convent of 

 the abbot of Pomposa, in the duchy of Ferrara, 

 at the request of the abbot himself. He wrote here 

 several musical treatises, particularly his compen- 

 dium, entitled Micrologus. Gerbert, abbot of St 

 Blasius, in the Schwartzwald, has collected in his 

 Scriptores ecclesiastici de Mu/sica sacra, every thing 

 that he could obtain of Guido's works, which, how- 

 ever, at present, are valuable only as antiquities. 

 3c2 



