Brewer's: Aretinian Syllables

Ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, used by Guido d'Arezzo in the eleventh century for his system of hexachords. Hexachord means a scale of six notes. They are the first syllables of some words in the opening stauza of a hymn for St. John's Day. “Ut queant laxis re -sonare fibris,” etc. Si, the seventh note, was not introduced till the seventeenth century. Originally thescale consisted of six notes only. (See Do.)

“Auparavant on ne se servait que de six notes; et on remplaçait le si au moyen de combinaisons appelées nuances.” —Bou llet: Dictionaire des Sciences, p. 1523, col. 2.)

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