Perhaps someone will find fault with the attributed surname that was given to Guido, who is not D'Arezzo, but lived in Arezzo. Someone else will be able to specify how much the real name is authentically Guido Monaco; and the stay he spent at the beginning of his life at the Pomposa Monastery, near Ferrara, cannot be traced back. But on one thing they will all agree: it is certain that we owe the neumatic musical notation to Guido D'Arezzo.
Notes on life
Guido D'Arezzo lived in a period between 990 and 1050. He lived a tumultuous life, studded with travels around the world, until he settled first in Arezzo, then in Rome; His teaching method and his musical treatises made him one of the most important teachers of Medieval Music. Even Pope John XIX had a deep admiration for Guido, so much so that he summoned him to teach him music through this new method of his. There is no certain data regarding death; after falling ill with Malaria, he left Rome and no news came from him.
The Solmysation, the hexachord and the first names of the notes
How did you come to the idea of having to give a neumatic definition to sounds? What was the need? It was necessary to experiment with a system through which it was possible for the singers to learn written melodies, without requiring the presence of the Maestro. Other teachers such as Ucbaldo and Ermanno Contratto tried to find a system suited to the needs of the musicians of the time. But only Guido D'Arezzo succeeded in the enterprise through the creation of the "Solmisation“; a method that bases its laws on the basis of the executive principles of the "hexachord", that is the succession of six sounds in which the semitone is placed in the center. These six sounds were derived from the first verse of theHymn of St. John. From the fusion of the syllables, and the sounds of the first verse of this song, the names of the notes were extrapolated; which at first bore the following names: Ut, D, Mi, Fa, Sol, La.
Through the creation of solmisations and the study of staff notation, musical teaching will be removed from the power of mnemonic orality. The explosion of such a discovery will be evident in the way in which written music will spread in the scenario of the History of Music. But also through the unavoidable benefits that it will bring above all to composers. Genres, forms and works can be handed down; they can be preserved and cataloged; the performer will no longer need the presence of a teacher to learn each new composition.
