The origin of "do - re - me - fa - so - la - ti - do"

Paulus Diaconis (Paul the Deacon) , who died in 799, was a historian and poet. He wrote a poem (in Latin, as was the norm back then) about John the Baptist.

Guido d'Arrezzo was a musician who lived about 200 years later. He developed the modern musical staff notation. (Although he might not have been the first to use something like that.) But he is probably most famous for what he did with a hymn that had set Paulus' poem to music.


(There is no consensus as to whether Guido actually wrote the music.)

The piece starts on middle C. Note that the musical phases progress up the scale for a while, each one beginning with what we call C D E F G A in turn, before dropping in pitch on the last phrase.

Guido decided to name each of the six notes according to the Latin syllable on which they fell:

ut - re - mi - fa - sol - la

Over time, "ut" became "do" , some people sang "so" for "sol", and the seventh note got added as "si."

This addition happened much later. Classical Latin used "i" for both our letters "i" and "j", and medieval Latin was a bit inconsistent with the two letters after "j" was introduced. I am guessing that SI comes from the initials Sancte Ioannes (Saint John) in the final phrase,

Nowadays the seventh note is often given as "ti". (There is a song in the musical "The Music Man" during which the chorus sings the scale, and the lyrics contain "si". But of course Julie Andrews made "a drink with jam and bread" famous in "The Sound of Music.")