We will be using solfege throughout the course in order to warm up our voices and to become comfortable with the melodies (though probably not as thoroughly as we did on the first day). With that, you may be interested in learning a little more about the history of solfege. Here is a fun video that explains it’s origin. Remember: chant was originally passed down through oral tradition – monks had been singing for years before they began to form a method of notation (9th cent), after which, solfege began to develop.
(a curious thing you may have noticed: at the bottom of our neum handout, they use solfege to demonstrate the order of singing – in which they present a “sol-ut” combo …now you know why)
