Tonic sol-fa is a pedagogical technique for teaching sight-singing, invented by
Sarah Ann Glover of Norwich, England and popularised by John Curwen who adapted
it from a number of earlier musical systems. It uses a system of musical
notation based on movable do solfège, whereby every tone is given a name
according to its relationship with other tones in the key: the usual staff
notation is replaced with anglicized solfège syllables or their
abbreviations. "Do" is chosen to be the tonic of whatever key is being used. The
original Solfege sequence started with "Ut" which later became "Do".
By the end of the nineteenth century, this notation was very widespread in
Britain, and it became standard practice to sell sheet music with the tonic
sol-fa notation included. Some of the roots of tonic sol-fa may be
found in items such as the use of syllables in the 11th century
by the monk Guido de Arezzo the cipher notation proposed by
Jean-Jacques Rousseau in France in 1746, its further development by Pierre Galin
and popularization by Aimé Paris and Emile Chevé, and
the Norwich sol-fa of Sarah Ann Glover of England. Reverend John Curwen was
instrumental in the development of tonic sol-fa in England, and was chiefly
responsible for its popularity. When John Windet printed the 1594
edition of the Sternhold and Hopkins Psalter, he added the initials of the
six syllables of Guido underneath the note. Windet explained, "...I have
caused a new print of note to be made with letter to be joined to every note:
whereby thou mayest know how to call every note by his right name, so that
with a very little diligence thou mayest more easilie by the viewing of these
letters, come to the knowledge of perfect solfeying..." Rousseau, Curwen
and others would have been aware of this popular psalter.
B. C. Unseld and Theodore F. Seward, with Biglow and Main publishers,
imported Curwen's tonic sol-fa to the United States, though the method was
never widely received. Prior to this, the 9th edition of the Bay Psalm Book
had appeared with the initials of four-note syllables underneath the
staff. Reverend John Tufts, in his An Introduction to the Singing of Psalm
Tunes in a Plaine & Easy Method, moved the initials of the four-note syllables
onto the staff in place of "regular notes", and indicated rhythm by
punctuation marks to the right of the letters. These may be considered
American forerunners of Curwen's system, though he may not have been aware of
them. Tufts' Introduction was popular, going through several editions.
Nevertheless, his work probably did more to pave the way for shape notes. When
Unseld and Steward introduced tonic sol-fa in the late 1800s, it was
considered "something new". In 1972 Roberto Goitre printed one of
the most important modern versions of the method in Cantar Leggendo with the
moveable Do. Solmization that represents the
functions of pitches is called "functional" solmization. All musicians
that use functional solmization use "do" to represent the tonic in the major
mode. However, approaches to the minor mode fall into two camps. Some musicians
use "do" to represent the tonic in minor, whereas others prefer to label
the tonic in minor as "la" Both systems have their advantages: The former system
more directly represents the scale-degree functions of the pitches in
a key; the latter more directly represents the intervals between pitches
in any given key signature. Examples
The beginning of the "Conversation" towards the end of the Steven Spielberg
motion picture Close Encounters of the Third Kind uses both verbal and hand
signals. References
The Teacher's Manual of the Tonic Sol-fa Method: Dealing with the Art of Teaching
and the Teaching of Music, by John Curwen ISBN 0-86314-118-8
External links The Curwen Method
Professor Warren Steel's web site