Most of us recognize one of the songs in The Sound of Music:
Do, a deer, a female deer
Re, a drop of golden sun
Mi, a name I call myself,
Fa, a long, long way to run
So, a needle pulling thread
La, the note that follows So
Ti, a drink with jam and bread
Which will bring us back to Do.
When we sing along with the von Trapp family we’re honoring the work of a Benedictine monk who set out to solve the problem of singers who found it difficult to remember Gregorian chants. Guido of Arezzo used the first syllables of a well-known chant to remind the singers of the tune, then he drew a red line on the piece of parchment to demonstrate whether the melody went up or down in pitch. When people were able to learn the tune with one line, he added four more.
Once the singers got used to the idea of having the notes written down, Guido went on to find ways of indicating how high or low the starting note should be. Singers learned how to read the melody, and then add harmonies. Guido put all of his ideas together in a book, published in 1028, and continued to work on musical notation until he died in 1033.
Today, you can find the results of Guido’s musical notation in our gray hymnal, Singing the Living Tradition. This hymnal was published in 1994, and was followed in 2005 by the teal hymnal, Singing the Journey. Whether you prefer traditional melodies or new ones, you’ll find the beliefs, principles and sources of Unitarian Universalism in these and other hymnals. Come and let your voice join with others as the Fellowship choir provides the musical foundation for Sunday worship.
Come, sing a song with me!