solfeggio

American  

[sol-fej-oh, -fej-ee-oh] / sɒlˈfɛdʒ oʊ, -ˈfɛdʒ iˌoʊ /

noun

Music.

solfeggi, plural solfeggios plural

1. a vocal exercise in which the sol-fa syllables are used.

2. the use of the sol-fa syllables to name or represent the tones of a melody or voice part, or the tones of the scale, or of a particular series, as the scale of C; solmization.

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solfeggio British  

/ sɒlˈfɛdʒɪəʊ, sɒlˈfɛʒ /

noun

1. a voice exercise in which runs, scales, etc, are sung to the same syllable or syllables

2. solmization, esp the French or Italian system, in which the names correspond to the notes of the scale of C major

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• solfeggi
  plural
• solfeggios
  plural

Etymology

Origin of solfeggio

1765–75; < Italian, derivative of solfeggiare, equivalent to solf ( a ) ( see sol-fa) + -eggiare v. suffix

Example Sentences

At 4, he knew his solfeggio; at 17, he was admitted to the Paris Conservatory of Music; at 21, he won the Conservatory's Prix de Rome, and went there at the French government's expense.

From Time Magazine Archive

Unhappily in many districts the movement receives a lively opposition from music-teachers, who do not approve of this mnemotechnical way of learning poetry with music, without any instruction in solfeggio or musical science.

From Musicians of To-Day by Blaiklock, Mary

Lauretta exerted all her skill and art; she warbled trill after trill like a nightingale, executed sustained notes, then long elaborate roulades—a whole solfeggio.

From Weird Tales. Vol. I by Hoffmann, E. T. A. (Ernst Theodor Amadeus)

To him the smaller and tamer cep riò replied with a sweetly modulated solfeggio of extraordinary precision, and I awoke.

From My Friends the Savages Notes and Observations of a Perak settler (Malay Peninsula) by Sanpietro, I. Stone

Besides these lessons, she studied harmony and practiced solfeggio at the Conservatory.

From Camilla: A Tale of a Violin Being the Artist Life of Camilla Urso by Barnard, Charles