John Curwen was an English congregational minister and he had taught himself to read music from a book by Sarah Glover that
introduced to him the idea of Tonic Sol-fa. Religious and social ideals of equality motivated him to create and promulgate an entire
method of teaching based on this idea, for he believed that music should be the inheritance of all classes and ages of people. At
considerable expense to himself, he published his own writings, which included a journal entitled Tonic Sol-fa Reporter and Magazine
of Vocal Music for the People. After 1864 he resigned his ministry to devote most of his time to what had become a true movement in
mass music education. He and his son John Spencer Curwen incorporated a publishing firm, J. Curwen & Sons, eventually adding Tonic
Sol-Fa Agency to its name. It became an important publisher of educational music. In 1869 John Curwen established the Tonic Sol-Fa
College, which just over 100 years later established the Curwen Institute in London. Though Curwen did not truly invent Tonic Sol-fa, he developed a distinct method of applying it in music education, one that included both rhythm and pitch. William McNaught , a devoted
student of the Tonic Sol-fa Method, is said by his son to have thought of it as "musicianship of the mind with the voice as its instrument."

You may remember that middle 'c' is named 'sol fa ut' in medieval music theory (see above) and that the 'c' one octave above 'middle c'
is named 'sol fa'. It is from these two syllables 'sol' and 'fa' that the system derives its name and explains the presence of the hyphen
between 'sol' and 'fa'. The essence of the Curwen system is that the key-note (or tonic) is called 'doh'. It is followed, in an ascending major scale, by the notes 'ray', 'me', 'fah', 'soh', 'lah', 'te' before returning to 'doh', one octave higher than the first 'doh'. 'doh' is moveable - in other words, it depends on the key in which the piece of music is set, which note will be 'doh'. In fact, 'doh' is always the key-note.
This contrasts with the continental system where 'doh' is immoveable and represents the note 'c' whatever the key in which the piece is
set.