Handbook of Solmization

DOCEAMUS is a comprehensive and integrated method for teaching and learning early music. It consists of recreating the techniques and skills that were common among musicians until the fall of the Ancien Régime, and that were either substantially transformed – or in some cases lost – during the transition to modernity. The method is based on historical sources of musica practica (the formal Latin term designating music as a practical art, as opposed to the liberal art of musica theorica), and reproduces its curriculum, structured in three subjects: plainchant, improvised counterpoint, and written polyphony. This curriculum was established during the Middle Ages and remained valid, with variations and extensions, throughout the Early Modern Era, only being displaced in the 19th century with the emergence of the conservatoire.

The HANDBOOK OF SOLMIZATION offers a practical approach to hexachordal solfège. This system, attributed to Guido of Arezzo (11th century), was not only the precursor to modern solfège, but also, for many centuries, the foundation of musical training and the central focus of instruction in plainchant. Despite the interest it arouses in academic circles, it remains difficult to find a methodology that enables its development as a practical skill for a broad audience. This manual combines progressively ordered exercises with diagrams and examples that visually demonstrate how the system works, accompanied by explanatory texts in the form of questions and answers, with the aim of facilitating the learning process for those interested in rediscovering early music and its pedagogy.

Contents:

Foreword

About DOCEAMUS

1 | General aspects

2 | Basic elements

2.1 Voices

2.2 Letters

2.3 Properties

3 | Frames of reference

3.1 Deductions

3.2 Gamut

3.3 Signs

3.4 Guidonian hand

4 | Navigating the system

4.1 Mutations

4.2 Types of mutations

4.3 Other mutations

4.4 Mutations, hand, and staff

5 | Practicing repertoire

5.1 Suggestions for practice

5.2 Repertoire suggestions

5.3 Didactic pieces

Glossary