Sing Your Way to Just Intonation

Ivor Darreg

Because of the dominance of atonality (weakening and then total abolition of the classical key-system), and the concentration in college music departments on 12-tone serialism for quite a while now, an important development in 19th-century musical theory and in practice, John Curwen's Tonic Sol-Fa system, has been allowed to die out in obscurity, and has suffered an undeserved neglect.

Curwen took the 950-year old Guidonian solfeggio syllables, in their 19th-Century European form, DO RE MI FA SOL LA SI, and respelt them for his British choirsters as DOH RAY ME FAH SOH LAH TE, and then went on to abbreviate them d r m f s l t, so that a whole musical notation, with special rhythm signs and additional syllables for accidentals could be created for the benefit of sight-singers. There was also a chart called the Modulator, which showed what happened on moving DOH from C to F, G, or someplace else, and-this is very important for us microtonalists -- the difference in comma levels. For example, D in the scale of F major is one comma lower than it is in C major, or, in Partch's terms, 10/9 vs. 9/8, relative to C as 1/1.

Naturally enough, organists and pianists didn't understand the Tonic Sol-Fa idea of singing in just intonation for pure serene harmony, so much misinformation got into articles and books about the system, especially in recent decades.

For today's xanharmonics, of course we need thmgs which Curwen had not dreamt of, such as syllables for intervals like 7/6 or 11/8 and like that. But no matter: dozens of systems of solfa syllables have been invented, and in India they have a series SA RI GA MA PA DHA NI for just intonation on their lines. Eitz invented a C series of 53 syllables for the 53-tone system. So a new set of syllables for the nearest just intervals and the harmonic series is no problem to construct. We can experiment till we hit on the right scheme. It shouldn't take as many as thirty to do the job, since this is a movable do idea -- i.e. if we modulate, do changes to another pitch to suit.

Alexander Ellis in his Appendix to the translation of Helmholtz's Sensations of Tone, gives a set of syllables for the nearest members of the Web of Fifths and Thirds. We would need a 7 or 11 limit, of course, with a few more syllables.

In the meantime, an excellent way of getting in tune with other people is to practice singing long sustained just intervals with them. Even dissonant ones like the major seventh, 15/8, will give both of ou a unique sensation while you boldly sustain it. Be sure to try major sixth 5/3 on different vowels, which vary its degree of consonnace; and by all means try the diminished fifth (actually several intervals which try to fight it out: 64/45, 45/32, 10/7, 7/5, all mistuned versions of one another!) and note how both of you keep sliding about looking for the "right" place which in this case doesn't exist.

Don't just read this and forget it; sing out!