Sol`mi*za"tion (?), n.
[F. solmisation, fr. solmiser to sol-fa; --
called from the musical notes sol, mi. See Sol-fa.]
(Mus.) The act of sol-faing. [Written also solmisation.]
&fist; This art was practiced by the Greeks; but six of the seven syllables now in use are generally attributed to Guido
d' Arezzo, an Italian monk of the eleventh century, who is said to have taken
them from the first syllables of the first
six lines of the following stanza of a monkish hymn to St. John the
Baptist. --
Ut queant laxis
Resonare fibris
Mira gestorum
Famuli
tuorum
Solve polluti
Labii reatum,
Sancte Joannes.
Professor Skeat says the
name of the
seventh note, si, was also formed by him [Guido] from the initials of the two words
of the last
line; but this is disputed, Littré
attributing the first use of it to Anselm of Flanders long afterwards. The syllable do is often
substituted for ut.
Hear it pronounced