solmization

The commonest European system, still in use, originally named the notes ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la in groups of six (hexachords) beginning on G, C, or F, using syllables from a Latin hymn for St John the Baptist’s Day in which each phrase begins on the next note in the scale: ‘Ut queant laxis resonare fibris Mira gestorum famuli tuorum, Solve polluti labili reatum, Sancte Iohannes’. A seventh note si was added later (from the initials of Sancte Iohannes). Modern systems typically use the sequence as arbitrarily adapted in the 19th century: doh, ray, me, fah, soh, la, te, with doh being C in the fixed-doh system and the keynote in the movable-doh or tonic sol-fa system