Is it true that the names of the seven notes come from words with the meanings of “Lord”, “Matter”, “Miracle”, “Family”, “Sun”, “Milky” and “Heaven”?

According to the popular theory, the names of notes go back to a number of Latin concepts of a religious and cosmological orientation. We checked if it was true.

In recent years, a number of the same type have been walking along social networks demotivators, whose authors offer readers to find out from what concepts the names of the seven well -known notes came from. Namely:

Do - Dominus - Lord
Re - Rerum - matter
Mi - Miraculum - miracle
Fa - Familias Rlanetarium - family family, that is, the solar system
Sol - Solis - Sun
La - Lactea via - Milky Way
Si - Siderae - heaven

However, you can find out about this not only from social networks-information is distributed both on separate Internet resources (site Velskoy Children's School of Arts, the Orthodox portal "Elitsa", "Picabu", Fishki.net), and in printed books (the story of Polina Breiter "Octave", comments on the composition of the Dominican Monk Jacob Vuraginsky "Golden Legend", tutorial playing piano "Music for children"). In the latter case, it is explained that the inventor of notes was fond of occultism and astronomy.

Often you can read that the syllabic names of notes familiar to us appeared in the Middle Ages. However, this does not mean that before this notes or their analogues were not at all. After all, there are ancient melodies that have reached us, and at the same time, for sure, some of them were transmitted from generation to generation not only orally, but also in writing.

Indeed, musicologists from the site France Musique They counted about 1260 different characters used for such purposes in the antiquity era. More familiar to us Lamping notation It arose much later. The philosopher of the VI century Boieties in his works on the theory of music Used 15 letters of the Latin alphabet to refer to 15 in a row of coming notes, and did not tie each to a specific sound height. The cyclic use of only the first seven letters (a, b, c, d, e, f, g) for notes from la to salt was introduced much later. Modern researchers They believeWhat happened on the territory of modern France a little earlier than 1000, when a similar notation is found in the manuscript of Dialogus de Musica anonymous Lombard monk. Initially, this work is erroneous attributed Monah-Benedictine and Catholic St. Odon Kluinsky.

However, it was not very convenient for the singers in the choirs to use the letters for singing notes aloud, and the authors of the works for recording polyphonic works. In those days, the main alternative to the letter notes of the notes were nales - special hooks and curls, which noted an increase or decrease in sound. As, obviously, they could not adequately convey all the musical material, so soon they began to prescribe letters to the Neumans - to indicate tonality.

The revolution in musical notation in the first half of the XI century was committed by another Italian monk-Benedictan, part-time theorist and teacher Guido D’Aretzo (Aretinsky). He replaced many letters and hooks with lines - first with two, and then four. Neums began to sign up on them or between them. So the first semblance of the musical camp appeared. Later, square analogues replaced Neumam, then turning into ovals - notes familiar to us:

However, this was not the last merit of Guido d'Areterzo to world music. To simplify the process of teaching singing in his monastery, Guido put the text to the music Ut Queant Laxis - The anthem of John the Baptist, written in Latin and traditionally attributed to Pavel Deacon, a Langobard historian living in the VIII century. Here is his first stanza:

Ut Queant Laxis
Resonare Fibris,
Mira Gestorum
Famuli Tuorum,
Solve Polluti
Labii Reatum,
Sancte Johannes

The peculiarity of the Gvido melody was that the singing of each of the first six lines began with the next in order of the step of one diatonic sound -rower (before, re, mi, phase, salt, respectively). According to the first letters of the Gwido d'Aretzo lines, and began to denote the notes: Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, or rather, the steps of the Sunny.

At least five centuries have passed, and to replace the note UT, which was inconvenient to sing, Came Note Do. Where did its name come from? Versions vary. Some scientists They thinkthat do, as stated in the popular version, means the word dominus ("Lord"). Others lead her to the Latin word with the meaning of "give." According to third version, the Italian composer Giovanni Batista Doni around 1640 renamed her in honor of the first syllable of his surname. With the introduction of the seventh note, si, not everything is completely clear. It is believed that it was added in the 16th century Anselm Flanders, either Gubert Walrant From Antwerp (about 1574), and SI is a reduction from Sancte Ioannes.

How easy it is to notice, the words from which the names of the remaining five notes went do not correspond to the popular version. In the translation of R. L. Pospelova, the first stanza of the anthem John the Baptist looks like this:

To open lips
The slaves were able to sing
Your deeds miracles
You let go of the guilt from vicious lips
Our Saint John.

Only the word mira is related to the word miraculum (“miracle”), the rest of the words, contrary to the theory under consideration, are completely different. Thus, with the exception of one root and one disputed word (dominus), this legend is false.

Most of the untruth

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Were do the Names of the Notes Come from?
2. Notes, Scales, and Modes in the Earlier Middle Ages