Solmization and the Guidonian hand in the 16th century

For the footnotes and other extra information see the following link:
www.earlymusicsources.com/yout...
Created by Elam Rotem
www.earlymusicsources.com
Special thanks to Anne Smith and Alon Schab for their input, and for Ozan Karagöz for singing.
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[@pianopiano2761]

I'm 35 years old and I regret I haven't learned music when I was a kid. However, I am mature enough (and crazy enough) to do it now. I feel stupid most of the time, but curiosity is a good booster. I've overcome the part of my life when I felt stupid because of asking questions. Love from Italy.

[@lawrencetaylor4101]

The same story, but I started last year at 65 years old. Couragio della Svizzera.

[@shakespeareaholic]

I've been in the same boat mate, how did you go 5 years on? Love from Aus

[@arastoomii4305]

if this is not the best channel on KZbin, i don't know what is. thank you for these great series.

[@sgerianda]

Exactly. First like then watch

[@christopherwarwick5956]

This is like an old Open University T.V. broadcast! Brilliant!

[@jai97guit]

How can anyone dislike?? The ammount of work put into this is amazing. Subbed

[@StephenBaggaley]

Revealing and explanatory of a system that long intrigued me.

[@petegalvs]

Elam, you have a beautiful voice :)

[@yoshiisland4467]

Very useful, thanks! There's just a mistake: "lascia fare mi" doesn't means "leave me alone", but, letteraly, "leave it to me" or "let me do it myself"! 🙂

[@philiprobinson7332]

Brilliantly done. I need to watch this a few times to really 'get' all the points. So glad that I've found it.

[@ivanravenski]

Extremely informative and very entertaining. Great upload.

[@shantiglam]

This is one of the best music channels but not only for music. One of the best channels out here in general. The (modern as explained on wikipedia) system of solmization is the only one that makes sense to me because music is relative to a tonal center (tonic) not to any fixed freqeuncy. I don't understand how "do" can be equal to C. Do is a sensation that corresponds to the tonic of any given key, including keys that do not exist on instruments ! This is what is taught in indian classical music. There are only 12 notes that correspond to "colors" or "sensations" and then you fix the tonic, which determines the rest of the notes thanks to relationships. This is how we are able to sing any mode in any given key.... Thank you for the very nice video.

[@carlosandres7006]

You are my hero. Thanks ad infinitum. Can you make a video in order to learn to use the hand? 😍🤗👍👏

[@RafaelAAMerlo]

Thanks Adam Neely for referencing this video and channel! Awesome work :D

[@picksalot1]

This video and your one on Hexachords has provided me with an important context for understanding what I was hearing in Early Music, but did not comprehend what was going on. Fascinating! Thanks

[@CyberChapel]

So much to think about. Thank you for sharing your deep insights into these matters.

[@nicool1312]

damn it's incomprehensible !!! thank you for popularizing ... not everyone is familiar with these concepts

[@MrJonahWhaler]

Bach's quote at the end is so beautiful. He actually described the principle of functional tonality, it's all about this fami, mifa.

[@musicdirector8046]

At the end of the day, it’s all about the so fa for me.

[@jeremydittus]

This is great; thank you for being so clear and specific! I will definitely share this with my students.

[@matchboxmatt]

These videos have been incredible. I've been watching all your videos as a supplement to my Renaissance Performance Practice class, and I deeply appreciate the clarity, energy, and care you put into your videos. It's beautiful how you can take something as complex and confusing as solmization (or modes... or tuning... or anything) and make it so easy to understand. Thank you for all you do.

[@JH_Phillips]

This was fantastic. I found an illustration of the Guidonian hand in an old lute music book. I was fascinated by the illustration and had not understood it fully until now. Thanks so much!

[@MrJonahWhaler]

It is invaluable video! It is interesting that this system of hexachords seems to be much better for teaching solfege than modern systems. Of course it does not fit modern music requirements... but at the basic level when kids or adult beginner gets into it seems to be much more convinient for introduction into singing and hearing intervals.

[@susanbreitung7584]

This is so fascinating and informative. Thanks so much for this!

[@kungfuasgaeilge]

Great channel by the looks of it! Subscribed, hoping to gorge on more of the content later today. Thanks A.Neely for the recommendation

[@patrickcunningham618]

thoroughly enjoying this study. thank you very much, it has come at a perfect time and place in my own, slowly progressing voice and music studies.

[@joanaguine]

Thank you so much! I have just taught myself how to use the guidonian hand, thanks to this wonderful clear video!

[@nyc88s]

I really love your channel!

[@augustomariogoulartpimenta4727]

Guys, you're amazing. Thank you!

[@micrologus]

Wonderful! Thank you very very much!!!! You are the best!

[@meriangelicaarakawa4106]

Very interesting and enlightening. Thanks ad infinitum too!

[@sagamusic2008]

Your channel is fantastic!

[@IWantMyTimTV]

So great!

[@lawrencetaylor4101]

I'm still watching the video so I don't know how much detail you give about the hand, but that is something that interests me. I studied to be a Chiropractor, practice of the hand in Greek. I had a shoulder injury and so had to learn a host of other techniques, and even specialized in the shoulder as well as the arm and hand. I never had music training until last year (at 65 yoa!) and am making up for lost time. I'm a horrible singer, but I've treated numerous singers, since my area is known for it's choirs. And singers use their hands to help them reach notes. But this information blew me away since the hand is the joint in the body with an incredible amount of brain connections. I also took a fascinating seminar that showed that there are 16 different postural and movement patterns that correspond exactly with the personality traits of Jung. They mentioned during their teachings that maybe it's not the brain that controls the body, but the body that controls the brain. Our bodies have evolved over generations, and maybe by singing and using the hands, we have adapted at being better singers. This should be taught in schools to children, to get back to our roots. I have a patient with a major orthopedic and neurological problem with his neck. When he does piano fingering exercises, his neck works better. He is happy to do the exercises each day.

[@lostapple4039]

Thank you for the video!

[@miguelullaberdullas]

i love this channel

[@tiniomi]

Excellent! Thank you very much!

[@surgeeo1406]

This is a most valuable video for me at this time. I'm trying to self educate with solmization on plainchant, now I can focus without worrying about useless detais.

[@emiliomini4024]

Amazing video! you are amazing!!

[@AlexTuble]

Where do you get that narwhal? It's adorable 😍

[@still451]

I have attended three hours counterpoint lesson with my professor from Hamburg still dunno what he is talking about 😅 now I started to slightly understand of it...

[@OmarzLiszt]

Thanks, this is amazing!

[@G.B.P.]

Beautiful video, subscribed

[@mariajosepire]

Awesome chanel!! Please make more videos!

[@alexfiredarksymphony8385]

Thanks! It's an amazing explication

[@monkeyrilla]

Thanks for the video! Extremely informative ^.^

[@ladonnalisa5926]

Mil gracias por este video. Esto me va ayudar con el contrapunto

[@qf1150]

Excellent!!!

[@garydmcgath]

Very useful! I'm doing a writing project where a character in the 16th century is learning to notate melodies, and this will help me to get it right.

[@stupidhatonthefloor3]

Liked and subbed. Adam Neeley sent me!

[@gastonduroc201]

Thank you for this...

[@user-lz5gd8xu8k]

0:50 Gamut 3:46 귀도의 손 4:47 16세기 푸가의 기보+노래 9:22 헥사코드로 노래하기

[@adolflazary5864]

Uy uy muchas gracias por tu trabajo. Es muy útil. Salute

[@gringasud]

Brillante!!!

[@QuintaEssentiaBR]

We have clues other than altering pitch or dynamics to play hard and soft. I mean, using articulation and length of the notes, that is possible to do even on recorders or organ. It has almost the same effect in performance comparing to dynamics

[@musodave]

Fascinating and very informative video. Interesting that they used both letters and sol-fa syllables to identify notes. I wonder when the two systems parted company, and when the fixed do system established itself in many countries

[@concetto11]

ありがとうございます！

[@trompetakentron]

Excelent!!!!

[@glauciamelo701]

Muito bom! A explicação foi bem didático.

[@monscarmeli]

While it's elementary enough to grasp the objective application of the hexachord system to the gamut of notes, still once you began singing examples and mutating hexachords, my instinctive thought was "why doesn't he just sing it according to scale degrees and scalar note names?" It would take much deliberate practice to begin to "internalize" the logic behind the hexachord system, but I can see that doing so would open up a much deeper musical sensitivity - like truly understanding Bach's famous quote, etc.

[@mandalajose]

Thank you for these video. Only one thing, sharps, B duro, turns the note into a mi. Also attention thay avoided calling a note ut, because of the end of the hexacordium. For example at the end of the solmization of ancor, the G cannot be called Ut, because the mutation points are DEA.

[@tunglamle9443]

Thank you a lot. You did a really good job. I really appreciate it. Your lecture has helpt me learing solmization easier. I am a fellow student in Viet Nam. I wish I could share all things in the video for my friends, my teacher, and my students. Vietnam's music theory is still poor. Could you share to me the picture "the Gamut", I hope I have it to print it out.

[@NoaShemer]

אתם אדירים!!!

[@dorontirosh]

Thank you

[@TheseAreMyHooves]

Great videos, very informative! Any chance you could do a video on mensural notation ? :)

[@VivianStreet]

I should have watched this video before I watched the musica ficta one! I hadn't realized how important the Guidonian hand was. It makes sense that in a system where you can (and do!) indicate notes just by pointing to a spot on your hand, the notes that aren't on the hand seem...less important? That is, if you can't indicate it on your hand, why would you indicate it in writing?

[@y11971alex]

The contest for the choirmastership seems like one of those challenges to read the names of colours written in other colours

[@arielshikoba1857]

I now know more of what I don't know. Lol But awesome video and details 👌

[@patrickcunningham618]

great

[@MrJonahWhaler]

I wonder if there is any descritption/or any idea in the sources how they taught Guidonian hand, the methodology of it. I mean how they did it in practice... for example when they taught kids, obviously it was through singing but how they adopted it to voice range, what was the approach... If not in the sources, maybe you have some suggestion from your own experience. Thank you

[@Barde_Jaune]

Okay, time to tatoo my hand the Guidonian way. ;o

[@coteemartee]

Excelente. Estas de la croqueta

[@MySuperAnt]

Subbed

[@jakemoll]

Adam Neely crowd

[@rjwusher]

Liked and subscribed.

[@lizkelley-tavernier4864]

Same here! This channel is so awesome!!

[@MsBettyRubble]

Me too!

[@ganaelschneider]

seriously? I had no idea Adam would make a video about early music sources, that's awesome. I know both of them from totally different worlds

[@ganaelschneider]

can you give the link of the video where Adam mentions this?

[@castl_n]

Hi! Could you tell more about how the solmization concept basically killed our ability to play harp? That would be interesting, thank you.

[@HumbleNewMusic]

Tell me you made this beauty using Doodly and I'm getting it today!!!!

[@HoffmannVdg]

Thank you very much for this and many other lessons, especially for the both serious and light way of presentation. I have one request: Could you please give the reference to the pages within the "Practica Musica" where Finck writes about the different performances of the syllables? I think it lacks in your footnotes. Thanks again.

[@EarlyMusicSources]

You are correct! I will add it: You can read about it Anne Smith' "The Performance of 16th-Century Music" p.28. And here is the original place: Hermann Finck, Practica musica, Wittenberg, 1556; facsimile, Hildesheim-New York, 1971, Bv - Biiv

[@GrimLordofOregon]

I find it interesting that the low G letter looks like the Cyrillic letter for the g sound.

[@OrbiliusMagister]

Not Cyrillic, but in fact Greek. The letter identifies the "low G" and the start of the system. In Italian the word "gamma" meaning "range" derived from it.

[@agogobell28]

In this case, it’s the Greek gamma.

[@kam7286]

Yes, it's Greek as mentioned by others. When the Cyrillic alphabet was devised, it borrowed already existing letters from Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and also invented a few of its own for sounds that did not already have widely used symbols in these other alphabets.

[@janheuvelmans7096]

Is of komt er een bijdrage over de voces belgicae van Huibrecht Waelrant in de late zestiende eeuw in zijn lekenmuziekschool in Antwerpen? Hij 'vond de si uit', leerde ik, waardoor het ingewikkelde muteren niet langer nodig was. De techniek bleef echter bruikbaar voor een nieuwe compositietechniek: de modulatie. Klopt dit?

[@windowsforvista]

Please do the musica ficta video!

[@pianjitsu2857]

¿Cuántos géneros de Mutanza hay en el canto llano y qué es disyunta?

[@bluebird3878]

8:06 9:23 Thank you so much:)

[@d.o.7784]

I am lost 😵‍💫

[@szilardjofoldi6849]

Excellent performance! Do you know the Kodály method in Hungary? Relative solmization is used in music education from kindergarten to high school. It is very useful and can help ordinary people learn to sing

[@chmendez]

In latin countries we still use Do, Re , Mi,etc as note names for C, D, E, etc.

[@hunterharris4869]

Why was the scale at that time limited to a hexachord and not, let's say, a heptachord or the full octave? Mutations are pretty cool as a concept but it's always bugged me why 6 notes instead of 8.

[@marimba628]

Because Guido d'Arezzo invtented the system (hexachord) in the 11th century for learning Gregorian chant. The solfege syllables come from first syllable of the first 6 phrases of the Latin hymn "Ut queant laxis"

[@cartoman2503]

What about the Kodaly method using a new version of solisation ?

[@PamelaMou1]

Cartoman yes, which was taken from a system taught in Wales.

[@MrJoedonaghey]

What animation software do you use??

[@flugelflugel4556]

I see that you put alot of effort in this video. But i am totally lost when you got to mutations, how do you know when to do a mutation in piece that you sang?

[@urssulas]

I always hear you say “de la Motte” 😄

[@tuyetmuahe]

What books or resources are helpful to learn this Italian solfeggio?

[@TheShadowPerson.]

Could you please direct me on some early books about counterpoint or just composing in general? I know it's off topic from the video, but its difficult to find books that are useful.

[@TheShadowPerson.]

Elam Rotem Do you know any full English renditions of Le Istitutioni Harmoniche?

[@mojeo522]

7:16 the 's' on his harpsichord is shaking

[@harrympharrison]

How bizarre..

[@keithforbes4544]

It's a blur/motion correction from his camera, since the pig is moving around slightly

[@preludefugue4859]

Wow … what is the software to zoom in and zoom out the image in this great video ? Thank you..

Please, make a video on how solmization and hexachords were used in the 18th century. The soft hexachord was removed from the system, but a diatonic semitone was still mi-fa in every situation. This is the solmization Bach used, for example.

[@Williamegert]

Do you have more information on this? Thanks!

@@Williamegert check out this book: Nicholas Baragwanath, The Solfeggio Tradition: A Forgotten Art of Melody in the Long Eighteenth Century, Oxford University Press (2020)

[@Williamegert]

@ Thank you. Just bought it. :D

[@manuelgallegoclavero5342]

El RE viene después del SOL (G) en el exacordio durum, y después del FA en el mollis. Según esto no estaría cambiado el esquema?? ¿No corresponde el de la izquierda al SOFT + NATURAL y el de la derecha al HARD + NATURAL?

[@pablom.5698]

Re (A) viene después de sol (G) cuando el hexacordo natural está mezclado con el durum. De modo que ascendente se canta: do re mi fa sol / re mi fa y descendente fa mi \ la sol fa mi re do. Cuando el natural se mezcla con el molle es: do re mi fa / re mi fa sol ascendente y sol fa \ la sol fa mi re do. En ambos ejemplos que surtí se tomó como referencia una octava, de C a C. Siempre se toma como referencia primero el hexacordo natural, comenzando en C, y luego, dependiendo si la armadura contiene becuadro o b-molle, se mezcla con el durum (G) o el molle (F), respectivamente.

[@fabiocasadeiturroni]

Very useful!!!! Thanks for sharing!!! But LASCIA FARE MI does not mean LET ME ALONE, but LET ME DO, that is a nicer statement to start a new piece of music. :-)

[@federico4639]

Maybe it's like "let me be", it's not modern italian, I guess it's tuscan or some other dialect

[@musicdirector8046]

Perhaps the appropriate English idiom would be, “leave it to me.”

[@darklaboratory1697]

Does this mean that all the music from that period was written in one key or that some notes(of current chromatic scale) were not used at all ?

[@susanvaughan4210]

No wonder I've never been overly fond of a Maj. 3rd!

[@AestusHarmonicus]

The video is really nice but you have to be more careful with some concepts that are not really clear. For instance, solization indicates to us where to add a sharp. So if the note is named FA in solization will never be a MI and the oposite. When agricola talks about notes that have to be singed "neutral, hard or sweet" he is talking about harmonics in your voice, not dynamics as you do. In the cannon you are solmizating as a "fa super la" the upper Bmoll, but it is not a fa super la, because b is in the cleft. When you have just one bemol in the cleft the Gammaut note (tonal center) is in F, so the first note of cannon its named SOL, you are singing like gammaut was in C. I know that it is hard to explain in just 20 minutes all solmization, and I apreciate you effort. This video is very usefull if you want to talk about solmization as general culture, but not for professional performers.

[@EarlyMusicSources]

Thanks for your comments. 1. As I said in the video, musica ficta is another subject that deserves perhaps another episode. I'm not sure that I agree with you that "Solmization indicates to us where to add a sharp". If we are in a G mode (with or without flat), in every cadence the "fa" below the G would get a ficta (and become "mi" in a way). Perhaps however I didn't understand your point well. 2. Reading Agricola and understand it as "talking about harmonics" is your interpretation. As I said in the episode: "using dynamics or pitch, doesn’t seem right. Other interpretations, if there are such, still need to prove themselves if they are to find general acceptance." (As far as I'm aware the concept of harmonics is a later and was not known to Agricola, but I might be wrong.) 3. I didn't understand your point about fa super la. The Solmization of the canon is according to Sebald Heyden's "De arte canendi". His point (and mine to that matter) was to show that a melody can stay within one Hexachord. Starting on Sol as you suggest is possible, but would defeat the idea behind the example he chose to present. Best! Elam

[@AestusHarmonicus]

1.- I think that the problem is to add sharps where composer don't do it. We understand a cadence as an harmonic functional vertical matter. In baroque or renaissance cadence is a melodic form. There are soprano cadence, tenor cadence and basso cadence, it is not a matter of sharps, its a melodic matter. So I think that you added (as many peolple in world) a lot of sharps that are unnecesary and creates only confusion about solmization (even in the past). Read Ortiz's "trattado de glosas sobre clausulas" (division on cadences), for understand what a cadence is for an ancient musician. 2.- I accept that it's my interpretation, but you talk about yours. My comment isn't about what you said, it's about what you sang. Overtones are the base for understand the entire musical theory sistem from greeks till mozart at least, and that is the reason why Guido choose latin vowels. For instance, UT means fondamental note (keynote) froma mayor triad, RE means fondamental note from a minor triad... etc Latin vowels pronunciation contains the necessary overtones for understand the harmonic function of a single note. And that is why italian continuo uses just a few numbers too. Read Gioseffo Zarlino's L'Istituzioni Armoniche for understand more about this point. 3.-Ok, the point is that maybe Heyden's example isn't the best. The upper B note it's a normal FA not a FA SUPER LA, because B moll it's on the cleft. I'm sorry about Heyden's but it's a mistake. When you have a B moll in the cleft, means that gammaut its in F, so F=UT, G=RE,A=mi and Bmoll=FA... Heyden's solmization secuence it's ok just if we don't have a bmoll in the cleft. In that case gammaut its in G or C. You have to use gammaut in C for this example. I think that is very difficult to explain this point. Hexachords are really clear and well explained in Juan Bermudo's "Arte de Tañer Fantasia", or in Giovan Maria Lanfranco "Scintille di Musica" Best for you Nelson Contreras Escudero

[@EarlyMusicSources]

Thank you. (I guess you mean "Arte de Tañer Fantasia" by Santa Maria, not Bermudo)

[@AestusHarmonicus]

yes, sorry.

[@youshookme1358]

Where are the four pictures of hands from? At 3:46? I've looked at all links below

[@Tomsfilipsons]

The first thing I do with every video is find the pig with the sunglasses. Otherwise it just suddenly jumps out at me and I have bad dreams afterwards. Know your enemy.

[@juwonnnnn]

👌