Sol Fa Trivia: The roots of it all From a book on Gregorian Chant

The DO SI LA notes are said to have been first used in XIth century by a Benedictine Monk called Guy of Arezzo. He was a choir master seeking something to help his choiristers learn intervals. The notes came out of a hymn. Each of the notes was originally the first syllable of a phrase in latin.

The first notes were Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La. from:

UT que'ant laxis RE-so-na-re fibris MI-ra gesto rum FAmu-li tu-o- rum SOL-ve polluti LAbiire- atum Sancte Iohannes.

In the 17th cent the syllable UT was changed to DO and is now more generally used, (UT is still used in germany)

The Gregorians have a seventh note they call SI, not TI, and then they bigin the scale again.

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