To the seven musical notes make up the diatonic scale and are widely known, even by those who don't take music lessons. But do you know what they represent and how they emerged and became popular? That's what we're going to answer today!
Before C, D, Mi, F, G, A and Si
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Music has always been present in the history of humanity. Several people developed methods and theories to standardize compositions and understanding the sound universe.
In Ancient Greece, for example, there were already musical recording and notation systems that used the Greek alphabet as a base. Other civilizations also sought to develop ways of representing and disseminating musical works.
The creation of musical notes was not a discovery, but an invention. They are a convention, a predefined code to help musicians read scores, mainly in the West.
Each culture may represent sounds in different ways, but the idea of musical notes as we know them today dates back to the Middle Ages.
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During that period, with the heyday of Christian music, new musical theories emerged, in addition to the updating of older ones. In this way, the seven-note system was adopted by the Catholic Church.
It was during this period that music gained great importance, especially among clergy, which led to the need to standardize musical conventions.
Monks, who had access to the musical knowledge of classical civilization through monastery libraries, began to use this art significantly in liturgical celebrations.
Emergence of musical notes
Guido of Arezzo, an Italian Benedictine monk who lived in the 11th century, played a key role in creating the system of musical notation still used today.
To simplify learning and reduce errors when interpreting pieces, Guido de Arezzo created a simplified musical scale.
He based it on a Latin hymn in praise of Saint John the Baptist, a popular song of the time that was easily memorized.
The initials of the words of that song were transformed into the notes “ut,” “re,” “mi,” “fa,” “sol,” “lá,” and “si.” The “si” was created from the initials of “Sancte Iohannes,” the name of the saint honored.
But, answering the question that started this article: no, musical notes do not include all existing sounds, far from it. In fact, most of the sounds produced in our daily lives do not have a defined pitch.
On the other hand, the seven notes are capable of expressing most of the musical sounds understood in the Western world, being the basis for creating almost all the music we know.
