Adjacent Words

Solmization definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SOLMIZA'TION, n. [from sol,mi, musical notes.] A solfaing; a repetition or recital of the notes of the gammut.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a system of naming the notes of a musical scale by syllables instead of letters [syn: solmization, solmisation]
2: singing using solfa syllables to denote the notes of the scale of C major [syn: solmization, solfege, solfeggio]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: French solmisation, from solmiser to sol-fa, from sol (from Medieval Latin) + miles (from Medieval Latin) + -iser -ize Date: 1730 the act, practice, or system of using syllables to denote the tones of a musical scale

Britannica Concise

Use of arbitrary syllables for singing as a guide for the singer. It may have been invented by Guido d'Arezzo when training his cathedral singers. Borrowing the syllables--ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la--from the first syllables of the lines of a hymn each of whose phrases began one note higher than the previous phrase, he claimed that his method made it possible for his singers to learn the chant for the entire church calendar in about two years. The syllables are still in use, though ut is usually replaced by the more singable do, and ti or si has been added for the seventh scale degree.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. Mus. a system of associating each note of a scale with a particular syllable, now usu. doh ray me fah soh lah te, with doh as C in the fixed-doh system and as the keynote in the movable-doh or tonic sol-fa system. Derivatives: solmizate v.intr. & tr. Etymology: F solmisation (as SOL(1), MI)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Solmization 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.] Note: 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, Littr['e] attributing the first use of it to Anselm of Flanders long afterwards. The syllable do is often substituted for ut.