Sol-fa System. — Chambers's Encyclopaedia

Sol-fa System. Attempts have been made at various times to introduce a musical notation in which the staff with its lines and spaces is dispensed with. Jean Jacques Rousseau suggested, but afterwards discarded, a notation where the notes of the scale were indicated by the Arabic numerals—a principle which is the chief feature of the Chevè system, now largely used in France. A system similar to Rousseau's in its leading features, called the Tonic Sol-fa, has been brought into use in many singing-schools in Britain and America—its chief promoter being the Rev. John Curwen (q.v.), who obtained his main principles about 1840 from Miss Glover, a teacher at Norwich. It is believed that now a million and a half of children are learning to sing on this method in British primary schools. The system proceeds on the principle of giving the chief prominence to the fact that there is in reality but one scale in music, which is raised or lowered according to the pitch of the key. The seven notes of the diatonic scale are represented by the Solfeggio (q.v.) syllables, or rather Miss Glover's modification of them—Doh, Ray, Me, Fah, Soh, Lah, Te; Doh standing for the keynote in whatever key the music is written. In the early exercises the pupils are accustomed to a scale or diagram, called the Modulator, representing pictorially the exact intervals of a key, with the semitones in their proper places. In written music only the initial letters of the solfeggio syllables are used—d, r, m, f, s, l, t; the higher octaves of a given note being distinguished by a ¹ above, as d¹, r¹; and the lower by a ₁ or ₂ below, m₁, m₂. The name of the key is prefixed to a time as its signature, as 'Key A,' 'Key B flat'—the keynote being, in all the major keys, doh. To indicate rhythm a perpendicular line | precedes the stronger or louder accent, a colon : the softer accent, and, where necessary, a shorter perpendicular line | the accent of medium force. A note immediately following an accent mark is supposed to occupy the time from that accent to the next. A horizontal line indicates the continuance of the previous note through another pulse or beat. A dot divides a pulse into equal subdivisions. A dot after a mark of continuance indicates that the previous note is to be continued through half that pulse. A comma indicates that the note preceding it fills a quarter of the time from one accent to the next; a dot and comma together three-quarters. An inverted comma ' is used to denote that the note preceding it fills one-third of the time from one accent to the next. An unfilled space indicates a rest or pause of the voice. A line below two or more notes signifies that they are to be sung to the same syllable. We subjoin an example of the tonic sol-fa shown alongside of the ordinary notation, and illustrating most of the features named :

	f¹
	m¹
	r¹
	d¹
	te
ta	lah
	se
	soh
	fe
	fah
	me
	ray
doh	t₁
	l₁
	s₁
	f₁
	m₁

Modulator.

KEY A.

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.

$\begin{matrix} | d : d : r | t_1 : - . d : r | m : m : f | m : - . r : d | r : d : t_1 | d : - : - | s : s : s \\ s : - . f : m | f : f : f | f : - . m : r | m : f . m : r . d | m : - . f : s | l_1 s_1 f : m : r | d : - : - \end{matrix}$

In modulating into a new key the note through which the transition is taken is indicated by a combination of the syllabic name which it has in the old key with that which it has in the new—me lah, for example, being conjoined into m'lah; and in writing this note (termed a bridge note) the initial letter of its syllable, as a member of the old key, is placed in small size before and above the initial of the syllable of the new, as m₁, ds. In the case, however, of an accidental, where the transition is but momentary, a sharpened note changes its syllabic vowel into e, and a flattened note into ae, spelled a, as fah, fe; soh, se; te, ta. In the minor mode lah is the keynote; the sharp sixth is called bay, and the sharp seventh se. The signature of the key of A minor is 'Key C'; lah is A. The time-names of the French Chevê system have lately been adopted. The method of teaching, based on a wide experience, is of equal importance with the notation itself.

For a full explanation of this system, see Curwen's Course of Lessons and Exercises in Tonic Sol-fa. Its advocates maintain that it possesses advantages over the common system in the facility of its acquisition; the distinctness with which it indicates the keynote and the position of the semitones; the cheapness with which it is printed; and the manner in which, they say, it explains the proper mental effects of notes in harmony and key-relation-ship, and employs them in teaching. It has, however, been objected to by others, from its withdrawal of the direct indication of both absolute and relative pitch to the eye which exists in the common notation, from its limited applicability to instrumental music, and from its acquisition not being, like that of the ordinary notation, an introduction to the world of musical literature. It presents, however, no barrier, but rather a road to the acquisition of the older notation; and its widespread use and the testimony of the general body of practical teachers are eloquent arguments in its favour. Of the children in English primary schools who can sing from notes 80 per cent. learn on this system, which has practically ousted the 'Fixed Do' system of Hullah, its rival in earlier days. The Tonic Sol-fa College, founded in 1869, with its system of examinations, carries on a vast amount of useful work.