The Chianti landscape is full of significant landmarks in the history of music. In this picturesque region, any city, big or small, will surprise you with its musical story.
Just to name a few... – Prato is historically one of the important centers for organ construction in Italy. Lucca is the birthplace of the greatest Italian composer Giacomo Puccini. Grosseto is the city of the origins of staged drama that later developed into opera... Not to mention "countless" composers and singers born in Tuscany.
Chianti hills are the music itself!
Of course, one of my favorite musical Chianti landmarks is Arezzo. – The birthplace of musical notation (musical score).
Guido's Story – Back in the 11century (!) there was a young monk called Guido d'Arezzo (meaning Guido from Arezzo). Well educated and adventurous. When he was a young teenager he "joined" monastery and since then he was in church choirs (in his case – monastic choirs).
"One day" he realised that monk singers have terrible problems memorizing all those difficult liturgical chants, so to make life easier for his singing brothers he came up with an idea of creating a musical notation – the do-re-mi scale.
The idea of naming notes "do", "re", "mi" etc came from one of the liturgical chants. Guido took the first syllable from each phrase of the first verse of that song. – And voila!
Doni's Do & Si – Of course, in the beginning "do" was "ut". In the 16th century an other Italian musician – whose last name was Doni (Giovanni Battista Doni) – suggested to change the closed syllable "ut" to the open syllable "do", of course, the first syllable of his last name.
Now, there was one more tone without a name in that Guido's scale. The tone, as we know it now, was "si". How did it get its name? – Simple. The same Mr Doni suggested to call it "si" by taking first letters from "Sancte Iohannes" (Saint John).
Ut queant laxīs resonāre fibrīs
Mīra gestōrum famulī tuōrum,
Solve pollūtī labiī reātum,
Sancte Iohannēs.
So that your servants may, with loosened voices,
Resound the wonders of your deeds,
Clean the guilt from our stained lips,
O St. John.
Do-re-mi. The search for "si"... Interesting. Tuscany, Chianti, history, music.... Fascinating.
Searching For Si – CercandoSi – While drawing around the spilled Chianti or painting my beautiful models I'm always searching that "missing si". That "si-note" in my paintings and drawings is not so much the academic technique which I follow faithfully but the story behind them. Without the story there is no meaning of art. Without the "si" there is no harmony.