La—bia reati.
Sancte Johannes.
The fame of his wonderful results in choir-training, soon reached Rome, and the Pope, John XIX.,[264] sent an invitation to the still ostracized monk, to come to Rome.
Guido is credited with having made many changes in the notation and harmony of his day. The hexachord system is attributed (justly or unjustly) to him. He also is said to have introduced lines of different colors into the staff, for the purpose of aiding the singer to recognize certain notes with more facility. He says in his Micrologus[265] “In order that sounds may be discerned with certainty, we mark some lines with various colors, so that the eye may immediately distinguish a note, in whatever place it may be. For the third of the scale [C] a bright saffron line. The sixth [F] adjacent to C is of bright vermilion, and the proximity of others to these colors, will be an index to the whole. If there were neither letter, nor colored lines to the Neumes, it would be like having a well without a rope—the water plentiful, but of no use to those who see it.”
While Guido does not lay claim to having invented the colored lines, it is probable that he brought them, by his influence into much more general use.
He certainly invented a modification of the line system of Hucbald. Instead of the inverted letters, and fragments of letters which the latter used, he employed the vowels only, to designate the pitch, thus,—
| tu- | u | |||||||||||||
| so- | os | o | ||||||||||||
| F | ri- | ri | lis | u- | i | |||||||||
| ve- | ter | ber- | e | |||||||||||
| Ma- | a | Ma- | a | a |
“Maria, veri solis mater, ubera tuos.”
Guido, altered Hucbald’s Organum in so far, that he rejected consecutive fifths, as being too harsh, and substituted a series of consecutive fourths as being milder.
It may not be out of place to remark here, that the present scrupulous avoidance of all consecutive fifths, in modern composition of strict school, is simply a reaction from the rude taste of past centuries, which employed them ad nauseum; there is no valid reason for their complete ostracism, any more than there was cause for the banishing of all sixths and thirds from the harmony of our ancestors. To Guido is also attributed the invention of the method of the harmonical hand (Guidonian hand, as it has been named after its supposed originator). This consisted of marking certain notes and musical signs on the tips of the fingers, and by this means more readily committing them to memory. As before stated, many of the inventions credited to Guido, are only adaptations. The Sol-faing system was almost an accidental occurrence; yet only genius can derive full profit from accidents. The hymn which gave rise to it (quoted above), is a most prosaic invocation to St. John to save the throats of the singers from hoarseness, in order that they may fittingly sing his praise. A very diplomatic way of requesting it.