'That thy servants may be able with free hearts to sound
forth the wonders of thy deeds; release us, O Holy John,
from the guilt of a defiled lip.'
In the ancient tune of this verse, the notes assigned to the syllables
in capitals were successively those of the scale, C, D, E, F, G, A,
and these same syllables were still used in singing in the 16th
century. It was noticed, however, that the scale could be easily
expressed by fewer names, and accordingly we find Christopher Sympson
(1667) saying, in his 'Compendium,' that Ut and Re are 'superfluous,
and therefore laid aside by most Modern Teachers.' In his book, the
whole scale of _eight_ notes is named thus--Fa, Sol, La, Fa, Sol, La,
_mi_, Fa. A modern Tonic Solfaist would understand this arrangement
quite differently. C, D, E would be called Do (instead of Ut), Re, Mi;
then would follow F, G, A, under the names Fa, Sol, La; and the
'leading note' [top note but one] would be called Ti (instead of Si);
the octave C beginning once more with Do.
The reader will remember that the tonal relation of C, D, E is exactly
the same as that of the next three notes, F, G, A--viz., C--D, a tone;
D--E, a tone; and similarly with F--G, G--A. Therefore the two blocks
of three notes (which are separated by a _semi_-tone) might have the
same names--viz., Fa, sol, la. Thus we have the first _six_ notes of
the scale, Fa, sol, la, fa, sol, la. There only remains one note, the
'leading note,' the B; and this, in Sympson, is named _Mi_. So the
principal thing in the sol-fa-ing of a passage was to 'place the Mi,'
or, as we should now put it, to find 'what key' it is in. Thus, in the
key of C, Mi is in B: in G, Mi is in F sharp: in F, Mi is in E, and so
on, the remaining six notes being named Fa, sol, la, fa, sol, la, as
explained above.
Edmund's 'Fa, Sol, La, Mi,' therefore, corresponds to F, G, A, B; or
C, D, E, F sharp; or B flat, C, D, E, etc.; according to the pitch
taken by the singer.