SOL 



SOL 



tjave been wholly developed in the writings of Guide, to 

 whom the inveijtion of the gammut and harmonlcal hand 

 has been commonly afcribed ; yet Dr. Burney obferves, that 

 writers very near the period in which he lived give him the 

 honour of its difcovery ; and particularly Sigebert, a monk 

 of Gemblours, in the diocefe of Namur, in Brabant, in his 

 Chronicle under the year 1028. John Cotton alfo, who 

 lived about a century after Guido, fays that folmifation by 

 the fix fyllables, ut, re, mi, fa, &c. was praftifed by the 

 Enghrti, French, and Germans ; but the Italians, he adds, 

 made ufe of other fyllables ; and by a paffage from the 

 Chronicle of Tours, under the year 1033, cited by Carpen- 

 tier, in his Supplement to the I^atin Gloffary of Du-Cange, 

 art. Gamma, Guido is put in full poilcflion of the fcale and 

 folmifation. About the end of the 17th century, the addi- 

 tional fyllable^ was univcrfally received in France for the 

 feventh of the key of C. Theearlielt Englilh writer, men- 

 tioned by Dr. Burnev, who takes notice of the omiflion 

 of ut and re in folmifation, is Mr. Cliarles Butler, in his 

 Principles of Mufic, publifhed in 1636, and after his time the 

 ut and n were rejefted by all the Englifli finging-mafters ; 

 Dr. Holder, Dr. Wallis, and every writer on mufic in this 

 kingdom, were unanimous in excommunicating thefe two 

 fyllables, till Dr. Pepufch endeavoured, and not unfuccefs- 

 fuUy, to have them again reilored. 



An ingenious member of the Academy of Arcadia, in 

 Rome, publifhed a pamphlet in 1746, recommending a new 

 method of folmifation by twelve fyllables, formed into 

 twelve ideal words, viz. utpare, bomifa, tufolde, lanosi, and 

 comprehending the whole fcale of femitones, from C to c 

 exclufive. This method is approved by the celebrated com- 

 pofer Hade, and by fignor Giambatilta Mancini, finging- 

 mafter to the imperial family at Vienna. Signer Serra, in 

 a treatife publiflied at Rome in 1775, propofes to name the 

 notes in finging by the feven firll letters of the alphabet, 

 dillinguifhing the flat, natural, and fharp notes by the ad- 

 dition of the three firft vowels to the feven letters, as ca, 

 c flat, ce, c natural, and ci, for c fliarp, by which means 

 the ftudent is difembarrafled from all the mutations, and 

 every found in the fcale has a fpecific and invariable name 

 appropriated to it. This metliod has been approved by fe- 

 veral of the bell mailers in Rome. 



Of the feven notes in the fcale, ut, re, mi, fa, fol, la, ft, 

 only four are in ufe among us, •y/'z. fa, fol, la, mi. Their 

 office is principally in finging, that by applying them to 

 every note in the fcale, it may not only be pronounced more 

 eafily, but chiefly that, by them, the tones and femitones 

 of the natural fcale may be better marked out and diilin- 

 gniflied. 



The defign is obtained by the four fyllables, fa, fol, la, 

 mi : thus, from fa to fol is a tone ; as alfo from fol to la, 

 and from la to mi, without dillinguifhing the greater or lefs 

 tone ; but from la to fa, alfo from mi lofa, is a femitone. 



If then thefe be applied in this order, fa, fol, la, fa, fol, 

 la, mi, fa, &c. they exprcfs the natural feries from c ; and 

 if that be to be repeated to a fecondor third oftave, we fee 

 by them how to exprels all the different orders of tones and 

 femitones in the diatonic fcale ; »nd Hill above mi will Hand 

 fa, fol, la; and below it, the fame reverfed, la, fol, fa; and 

 one mi is always dillant from another by an odtave ; which 

 cannot be fiid of any of the rell, bccaufe after mi afcending, 

 comes always _/(/, y©/, la, fa, fol, la, which are repeated in- 

 vertedly, defcendiiig. 



To conceive the ufe of this : it is to be remembered, thit 

 the firit thing in teachinjT to fing, is to make one raile a fcale 

 of notes by tones and femitones to an oAave, and defcend 

 again by the fame notes, and then to rife and fall by greater 



intervals, at a leap, as a third, fourth, fifth, &c. and to 

 do all this by beginning at notes of different pitch. Then 

 thefe notes are reprcfented by lines and tpaces, to which 

 thofe fyllables are applied ; and the learner is taught to 

 name each line and fpace by its refpeftlve fyllable, which 

 makes what we call fol-fa-ing ; the ufe of which is, that 

 wliile they are learning to tune the degrees and intervals of 

 found, exprcffed by notes fet on lines and fpaces, or learning 

 a fong to which 110 words are applied, they may do it the 

 better by means of an articulate found ; but chiefly, that 

 by knowing t!ie degrees and intervals exprelled by thefe 

 fyllables, they may more readily know the truedillance of 

 notes. 



Mr. Malcolm obferves, that the praftice of fol-fa-ing, 

 common as it is, is very ufelefs and inlignificant, either as to 

 the underllanding or pradlifing of mufic, yet exceedingly 

 perplexing ; the various applications of the feveral names, 

 according to the various figiiatures of the clef, are enough 

 to perplex any learner ; there being no lefs than feventy-two 

 different ways of applying the names, fol, fa, &c. to the 

 lines and fpaces of a particular fyllem. 



SOLFATARA, in Geography, a volcanic mountain, 

 ftyled by the ancients the " Court of Vulcan," fituated to 

 the S. of the city of Naples. Its form is circular, and it 

 is environed by hills of moderate elevation ; and notwith- 

 ftanding the vicinity of the fire, vines and fruit-trees grow 

 very well on the outer declivity. The floor of the crater 

 is white as chalk, compofed of various materials, which, 

 from the fteam that rifes, have been converted into a marly 

 clay ; or, perhaps, this was their original Hate, before tliey 

 were afted upon by fire. Tiles placed over vent-holes, and 

 ferving as retorts, coUeft condenfed alum, fal ammoniac, and 

 fulphur : the air is very hot, and difcolours paper and 

 metals. Mr. Swinburne fays, that the ground quaked and 

 refounded under his feet ; and others conjefture that the 

 hollow beneath is conneded with mount Vefuvius : by 

 laying his ear clofe to the ground, he could dillinguifh the 

 bubbling and hifTing of boiling water ; and yet upon part 

 of this emit or floor, chefnut-trees flourifli in perfed vi- 

 gour, and a variety of fhrubs fhoot up along the banks, 

 where they find level ground into which to tlrike root, and 

 are out of the blalling fmoke. Thefe hidden waters have 

 their iffue on the N. fide of the mountain, where, in a dark 

 valley, a foetid burning (Iream breaks out, and purfues its 

 courfe among rocks and bufhes, to the lake of Agnano. 

 The Solfatara has not emitted flames within the memory of 

 man, fo that it is a kind of half extinft volcano ; but wet 

 weather increafes the quantity of its fmoke. Here arc 

 manufaftures of fulphur, alum, and vitriol. 



Solfatara, or Lago di Bagni, a lake of Italy, in the 

 Campagna di Roma, containing feveral moveable illands of 

 matted fedge and herbage, which may be pulhed about by 

 poles. The water is chalky and fulphureous ; towards the 

 furface hardly lukewarm, but at a greater depth, hut and 

 continually boiling. Bathing in this water is recommended 

 for cutaneous difeafes : from the lake a river iflues, which 

 runn into the Tiber, i i miles S.E. of Rome. 



SOLFEGGIAMENTO, in the Italian Mufic, compo- 

 fitions, of which the fyllables, ut, or do, re, mi, fa, &C. 

 are the fnbjeft. See the next article. 



SOLFEGGIARE, Ital. Soljier, Fr. is what the vul- 

 gar in England caW fol fj-ing. All thefe expielTions imply 

 the fame tiling, — naming the intervals in the fii It lelions of 

 fin<'-iiig ; tor which, among regular bred mulicians, the 

 propel' term in Englifh li: folmifation ; wliicli fee. 



The folfeggios, or exerciles for the voice, compofed by 

 Leo for the vocal lludcntu ia the conlervatorios of Naples, 



were 



