THE CLAIMS OF TONIC SOLFA-I

THE days of bitter controversy over the precedence of the rival methods
of writing music are long past, and the dream, fondly indulged in a

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few years ago, that the standard notation would eventually wither
and die to make room for the newer, has faded. The Editor's
invitation to marshal the facts on the one side can therefore be under-
taken calmly and dispassionately, all the more that the writer does
not use solfa himself, but has merely advocated its retention for
certain branches of musical education.
Letter notation is a system devised to contain the fewest signs used
in the simplest way, without redundancies or ambiguities. Staff nota-
tion is complicated; but complicated though it is we love the look of a
page of a Mozart Symphony or a Bach Prelude because we are
thinking of what these queer symbols stand for, not because they look
beautiful in themselves. Moreover, Mozart and Bach appeal to us
in actual performance none the less if we have forgotten the look of
the printed page; indeed, their emotional effect is often greater thus.
One recalls John Curwen's immortal answer to a man who angrily
said that a staff volume was music and a solfa volume was not. He
held the former to his ear, saying quietly, " I s it music? I cannot
hear it." In considering the claims of the rival notations we must
put sentiment on one side.
This visible beauty that we think we find in a page of staff notation
is analogous to the audible beauty we know we find in the English
language. We cannot claim that the actual sound of English speech,
dear as it is to us all, is more beautiful than other tongues. Heard side
by side with sonorous Italian, liquid Gaelic, musical French, it appears
crude and angular. But it is the speech of our childhood and adoles-
cence. Common words recall memories and stimulate our imagination,
and men of genius have grouped sounds and shaped sentences so that
we are continually moved and thrilled. Good prose and poetry combine
inseparably beauty of thought with beauty of sound. We see this if
we read familiar literature in a foreign translation; we may be inte-
rested, but we are not " stirred as with the sound of a trumpet," as
was Sir Philip Sidney on hearing the ballad of " Chevy Chace."
Similarly, neither the staff nor any other notation is in itself
beautiful; but its interpretation is, and we transfer the beauty from
sound to sight.
314 MUSIC AND LETTERS

If we view the question of the methods of writing music over any

long period we see that they are continually in a state of flux, and the
question of the original mannor of noting the music does not influence
us when,we hear it. We enjoy a Madrigal of Wilbye no less because
singers use copies which have been transcribed from what is now, save
to experts, unreadable Tudor script. We are impressed with Gre-
gorian chant even though the notation conveys nothing to us.

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We have no more justification in imposing the notation with which
we are familiar upon our children than have the Anti-Metric Society
the right to decree that millions of young people must waste a great
part of their best years in learning our ridiculous system of weights
and measures.
Tonic solfa reduces the number of signs to a minimum. For pitch,
7 letter-names for the notes of the major scale, and 10 for the inflected
notes of the minor scale and chromatics are sufficient. Add to these
octave marks, above and below, and the signs for key and modulation,
and the roll is complete. In the early days of instrumental instruction
a child spells out notes, which convey to his ear musical sounds only
after they are played. In solfa sounds are related to each other from
the very beginning; simple progressions are heard and known first,
and then the sight of the signs calls the sounds to his ear
at once. If a young pianist is asked to sing GAG, the names are first
translated mentally into positions on the keyboard, and then (if ihey
can be sung at all) are reproduced. The mental process is indirect.
It is akin to preparing every word and thinking out rules of grammar
when translating a sentence into a foreign language. Modern
language methods teach children to think in the new idiom. If a
young solfaist is asked to sing d 1 s, the names call up the tune imme-
diately. There is no intervening process of thought. Training of the
ear is one of the cardinal points in musical education, solfa teaching
aims at that first and foremost, it begins every step.
A bedrock principle is that when a modulation of any extent occurs
the keynote is changed, and all sounds are thus related correctly to
the prevailing tonic. Slight changes are not marked in this way. In
staff, changes of key signature occur only occasionally in the course
of a movement, with the result that for line after line the only function
of the key signature is to increase the number of accidentals. A
young musician encountering this
 THE CLAIMS OF TONIC SOLFA. 315
has to spell it out, note by note. The new key is only appreciated
when the music is familiar, if then. A soUaist omits the five sharps and
calls the passage d 1 s. Nine-tenthB of the stumbling blocks in choral
singing are destroyed by this plan. The late Stephen Hawley edited
a number of classics for the piano in which key signatures were
changed frequently. Hundreds of accidentals were swept away, and
many apparently difficult passages proved to be quite easy. Every

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teacher simplifies his pupils' tasks by pointing out that certain
passages may be readily mastered if it is remembered that they are
in keys foreign to the signature. No doubt an experienced musician
does it instinctively, but this ability, except with very gifted people,
only comes after years of hard work.
The method of indicating modulations, or " removes," in solfa
parlance, is the first real stumbling block to the student of the
notation, and to the staffist it seems to make easy passages difficult.
But while it may complicate matters at first, it eventually clears away
numberless tangled areas of obstructing undergrowth. The staffist
moving through the method step by step can only see what is close
to him; when he eventually sees the whole in a suitable perspective,
he realises clearly that the longer view is the correct one. The plan
is as follows : Where a change of key occurs, one note is considered
as the pivot on which the swing occurs. It is given a double name;
that in small print belongs to the first key, that in large to the coming
key. The new key is indicated, and the " distinguishing tones," that
is, the notes in the new scale which are foreign to the old, are given.
If the movement is towards the positive side, the new notes are shown
on the right of the key note; if to the negative, on the other. This
simple device not only warns the singer which notes are likely to prove
troublesome, but indicates partially the difficulty of the modulation,
because, generally speaking, a distant modulation requires more car*
than one to a closely related key.
In modern notation, if the remove introduces more than three dis-
tinguishing tones merely the number is given.

is written:—

A. s.d.f.O.
|n :- j :d J |n :d :i ( |',n.r :n J :n
316 MUSIC AND LETTERS
Experience with classes and choral societies clearly reveals that
apparently difficult modulations are more quickly mastered through
this device than when singers are groping blindly through a maze of
accidentals. Naturally, in the rapid and passing modulations common
to modern music there is a growing tendency to rely more upon
chance chromatics than to change key incessantly. The mental effect
of a passage is always the guide, as in all matters relating to solfa.
Notation depends on the ear, not upon arbitrary rules.

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It remains to be seen whether the present harmonic tendencies
will destroy the key system which, though ever widening and
developing, has governed music since the early days of the seventeenth
century. But even if this comes to pass, the solfa notation of keyless
passages is less complicated than the other, the continual contradiction
of accidentals, such as Cjf, Cfcj, is more simply expressed by de, d.
It would be quite easy to pick out a number of isolated passages which
are more easily read in staff, but many more could be selected to
prove the opposite.
A common argument is that notes on the staff are pictorial in
appearance, and convey to the mind the contour of a passage, whereas
the horizontal arrangement of letter-names presents merely a dead
level. But staff is not wholly consistent in this direction, octave
signs and changes of clef disturb its continuity. Moreover, since
the letters call up in the mind their position in the scale, pictorial
representation is of small account. And the argument of pictorial
representation rebounds against the combatant when the notation of
time comes to be considered. A bar containing a single semibreve is
short, one containing thirty-two demisemiquavers is long, so far as
appearance on paper is concerned. All teachers know that students
are prone to hurry over the bar which looks short and linger over the
bar which looks long. In solfa all bars and beats throughout the same
composition are equally spaced. Thus the long note looks long, and
short notes are crowded together. All beats are shown distinctly and
endless mental calculation is dispensed with. Nothing could be
simpler than the signs used for bars of various groupings. Simple
duple time is shown thus :—| : | Simple triple :—| : : |
and simple quadruple :—| : I : |. In compound time, each
division of the beat is indicated. Compound duple:—| : : | : : |
compound triple:—| : : | : : I : : | and so on.
The notation of compound time is perhaps less satisfactory than that
of simple, as a larger space has to be covered by the eye in the same
length of time. The signs for beat-division are extremely simple.
A dot halves a beat:— : d .d | a comma indicates the quarter :—
: d, d. d, d | and an inverted comma the third :— : d, d, d |
 THE CLAIMS OF TONIC SOLFA. 317

It is urged, possibly with some truth, that it is sometimes difficult

to grasp quickly the notation for more complicated divisions of a beat,
such as J £ £, or \ £ %, but it must not be forgotten that this criticism
always comes from musicians who are less familiar with solfa than
with staff, and who generally have to translate all but the simplest
solfa signs into staff when reading. Anyone who uses solfa constantly
probably recognises these and more complicated divisions as readily

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as does the other his familiar quavers and semiquavers. It is indeed
difficult to judge the merits of any system which one does not use
habitually.
Smaller sub-divisions than these are rarely met with in solfa, as there
is only one time unit. In staff a minim is used as a beat in church
music, a crotchet usually in the first and last movements of a sonata,
and a quaver in a slow movement. Though the relative values of notes
remain the same, this continual alteration of unit produces the utmost
confusion. An amateur choral society always has trouble over reading
music in which a minim is the standard. There is a Palestrina motet
in Tovey's " Laudate Pueri " (Augener) which is exasperatingly
troublesome to any amateur choir, merely because a semi-breve is the
beat-unit. Teachers know how difficult it is for a young pupil to get
the correct time of the slow movement of a Mozart or Beethoven sonata,
where a quaver is the unit. No doubt the experienced musician likes
to read his Byrd and much of his Brahms in minim beats, and slow
movements in quaver beats, but that is again because be has always
been accustomed to that method of writing. There is no merit in it
per se.
The appearance of many slow movements is appalling; it is difficult
to tell whether groups of short notes are three stroked, four stroked, or
five stroked. Could anything be more terrifying in appearance than
some of the variations in Beethoven's Op. 111? A recent book* on
notational matters strongly urged a uniform beat in staff, and Elgar
in a preface warmly supported the recommendation. But solfa
adopted the principle years ago, and saved its adherents endless
trouble and vexation.
Some writers object to the tonic solfa plan of considering d as the
key note of the major scale and 1 as that of the minor. But it is in
agreement with the historical development of modern art, and
recognises the fact that out of the seven diatonic notes different
groupings were used, clustered around various centres. The only
difference is that whereas before 1600 the major scale was not the chief
• H. Elliot Button, " Musical Notation " (Novello).
 318 MUSIC AND LETTERS
grouping, it is now, and, consequently, it is taught first. If any
difficulty is experienced in adopting 1 as a key note it is due to lack
of skill in teaching, possibly through delaying the minor mode too
long. To obtain the minor scale by flattening the third and sixth of
the major is not only historically incorrect, but is a mere rule of thumb
for spelling out the notes on a piano keyboard. It does not explain
the various inflections of the minor scale. It creates unnecessary
difficulties. 1, t, d r m f se 1 is much easier than d r ma f s la. t d'.

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The translation of almost any piece in a minor key into the conflicting
plane will show that the solfa plan uses the minimum number of
accidentals. (I use the word " accidentals " for want of a better; in
reality se is not an accidental in the sense that fe or ma would be).
In teaching elementary harmony we modulate to the relative minor
at an earlier stage than we introduce the tonic minor. Except perhaps
in the work of Schubert, who used certain characteristic formula*
frequently, minor melodies change into the relative major more
often than into the tonic major. One point in the teaching
of the minor scale was a stroke of genius on the part of
John Gurwen. The sharpened sixth of the ascending melodic
form, up to his time and until modern experiments in the
formation of new scales, is nearly always used merely as a
passing note between the fifth and seventh. Occasionally it may be
taken as a changing note from the tonic, coming back to the seventh,
or the tonic may be interposed between it and the seventh, but the
effect on the mind is always the same, that of an unessential note.
Only very rarely iB it used as a part of the harmony. The mental
effect is therefore vastly different from that of the sharp fourth of the
major scale. As every detail of solfa is based upon mental effect, he
christened the major sixth in a minor scale " ba," and reserved the
name " fe " for the chromatic modification of the fourth of the major
scale. The learner patterns m ba se 1 from the model s 1 t d '. There
is no calculation of tone, tone, semitone, the mental picture is there.
The tetrachord is thought of as a whole. 1 se ba m is learned
similarly. A skilful teacher soon makes 1 ba se and ba 1 se familiar to
his pupils, and nearly every progression of this sort is thus mastered
in a few simple stages. The patterns are always ready to hand. As
" ba " is pronounced " bay," it is entirely different from ra, ma, la,
and ta, which are all pronounced with the " aw " vowel; no confusion
can arise. Modal music is much in evidence now, both in the
increased use of folksongs, and in modern composition. To adopt d
as the keynote in all these cases is to get deeper and deeper into the
mire, r m f s 1 t d' r' is simpler than d r ma f e l t e d ' ,
m f B 11 d' r/ m' than d ra ma f s la ta d'.
 THE CLAIMS OF TONIC SOLFA 319
In almost every direction it is clear to an unprejudiced observer that
tonic solfa has an advantage over staff. Take the question of the
teaching of harmony. A student has to recognise a perfect cadence
in twelve major keys, and in modulatory passages it may be sprinkled
with many sharps, single and double, flats, or naturals. There are
endless permutations and combinations. In solfa it is always a sob.
chord followed by a doh chord, save in a very few cases where a
modulation is not indicated. And so it is with all progressions,

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diatonic and chromatic. A young staff student may harmonise a
melody quite well if it is in C major or E minor, but B major or
hi\> minor will call up wicked spirits from the misty deep. To a solfaist
all keys are alike.
Curwen and his followers were chiefly concerned with singing, as
the best way of introducing music to the masses. Consequently the
question of the suitability of his notation for instrumental music was a
secondary consideration. But there are no intricacies of modern
keyboard music which cannot be solved by its means, and a brief
consideration of the most difficult problem which confronts a musician
of to-day, that of score reading, will show its adaptability to other
branches of art.
A modern orchestral score is sodden with awkward transpositions.
The clarinet sounds a major second or a minor third lower, the bass
clarinet a ninth, the cor anglais a perfect fifth; the horn,
though generally a fifth, may sound anything. The trumpets
sound a second lower or a second or fourth higher. Alto and tenor
clefs abound. But in solfa scores there is no transposition except that
bass instruments sound an octave lower than written, and the piccolo
an octave higher. Clarinet, cor anglais, horn, trumpet, read as they
sound, the key is merely indicated at the beginning. There are no
conflicting clefs.
Again, once keys are familiar to an instrumentalist, a passage
written in solfa can be changed into any key at will. Compare this
with the mental processes necessary for transposition from the staff.
The musical profession held aloof from John Curwen. There was
a tremendous demand for teachers of the method, and any fairly
musical man could learn to read well enough in a few months to be
able to impart rudimentary instruction to his fellows. The mission
of solfa was mainly carried on by people of this stamp, who had not
had time or opportunity to become cultured musicians. The result
was that the level of music taught was generally appallingly poor, and
the professional musician gathered his robes still more about him in
virtuous indignation. Even now mud is slung at tonic solfa on account
of the bad music it is supposed to foster, in convenient forgetfulness
 320 MUSIC AND LETTERS

of the character of the great mass of music issued in staff. Solfa

has accordingly remained under suspicion to this day. The contempt
of the staff-using conductor for his brother who " doesn't know
music'' (which means that he prefers to conduct from a solfa copy) is
as profound as that of the British tar who sees a Russian shopkeeper
reckoning on his frame of beads. A more legitimate source of scorn
is the amateur, who, finding solfa an easy conquest, is too indolent
to master the universal notation. In the early days of the movement

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many teachers aimed no further, and took no trouble to induce their
pupils to secure the knowledge necessary to unlock the great treasury
of musical literature. If the letter notation is pursued too exclusively
in the early stages of instruction, staff seems so formidable that
learning it threatens to be a serious task.
John Curwen was probably the greatest educationalist the world of
music has seen. Not only is the system of writing which he devised
extraordinarily simple and complete, but he had a marvellous instinct
for analysing the processes of the mind which accompany musical
activity, and for devising means of ensuring an easy passage across
any difficult ground. When one reads his books one is astonished at
his grasp of musical-psychological problems, and one finds nearly all
the ideas passing current in modern musical-educational movements
already thought out and mastered. This was one of the secrets of the
solfaists. Every step could be taught easily and with certainty, every
problem was solved, teachers not only learned to sing readily at
sight, but were early imbued with the best principles of teaching.
Even if a teacher never needs solfa, a course of instruction in the
principles of the solfa method of instruction is an invaluable training.
Probably no, one would recommend, at the present time, that solfa
be studied throughout all its higher branches. Even its most
enthusiastic advocates now regard it merely as a means to an end,
that end being thorough musical development and ability to read
quickly and with sureness from staff notation. However much we may
admire the notation, we must agree that there is no possibility of its
becoming universal in the future. The best method of teaching sight-
singing (and that is not a department of education curtained off from
the others; every instrumentalist is the better for such a training)
is to deal with both notations at the same time, introducing each
fresh point first in solfa, and then applying it immediately to staff,
all keys being used equally from the beginning. Experiment has
convinced me that a class taught both notations reads better from
staff in a given time than one nurtured exclusively on staff. It
may seem to the uninitiated that time is wasted in teaching two
systems when only one is needed. But reading from solfa is relatively
 THE CLAIMS OF TONIC SOLFA 321
easy; young people are encouraged because they find themselves able
to translate signs into sounds readily, and because they are able to
get to grips with notation in a simple way. As they carry these
principles into staff reading they do not find it so formidable. They
have acquired the habit of singing from notation, and soon find that
a little more perseverance enables them to get hold of the staff. After
a certain stage solfa should be used merely as preparation for fresh
staff difficulties, and as a means of acquiring fluency of musical

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thought.
No one who has had experience with choral societies doubts that,
generally speaking, the singer with a good solfa foundation is a more
accurate and rapid reader from staff than he who has only learned the
standard notation. There are exceptions, naturally; we are not
considering the specially-gifted, but the rank and file of choristers.
A few pencilled solfa notes frequently clear away awkward stumbling-
blocks which repeatedly throw the one-notation singer.
The present article is being written on a protracted Colonial
examining tour. One finds that in districts where solfa is used in
schools, ear-tests present relatively litle difficulty. Where it is not,
there is a great deal of guess work and much inaccuracy. If one sees
a candidate anxiously watching the keyboard one has little hope of ready
and correct answers. When solfa syllables are used, answers are
prompt and in the main accurate. If is a common thing to find profes-
sional candidates who cannot distinguish between a major and a minor
common chord, or between an interrupted and a perfect cadence.
Music is conceived by them in term6 of a keyboard, not as sound.
Yet school-children with a good knowledge of solfa do these things
readily.
If, instead of condemning their self-ignorance, musicians would
give solfa a lengthy and unprejudiced trial, they would freely adopt
its best points, and would acknowledge that they owe a great debt of
gratitude io the remarkable insight and inventiveness of John Curwen.
(To be continued.)

Vol. t.