Solfa Syllables

REPRESENTATION

solfa — representation for tonic solfa syllables

DESCRIPTION

The solfa representation permits the encoding of extended tonic solfa syllables for the "moveable doh" system of pitch naming.

The solfa representation distinguishes three types of data tokens: pitches, rests, and barlines.

Pitches tokens are represented using the syllables do, re, mi, fa, so, la, and ti — or their chromatic alterations: di, da, ri, ra, etc. (see table below). Tonic solfa syllables can be determined only with reference to some prevailing key. For example, the pitch C is the tonic (do) in the key of C major or C minor.

The solfa representation does not distinguish between major and minor modes. Only the tonic pitch is of importance when determining the representation for a given pitch. For example, in both C major and C minor, the pitch A-natural is represented as la while the pitch A-flat is represented as le.

The amount of chromatic alteration is not represented by solfa; once a pitch is "raised," raising it further will not change the note’s representation. For example, where the tonic pitch is B-flat, both B-natural and B-sharp are represented by di.

Octave designations are not represented in solfa. However, solfa provides limited capabilities for representing phrasing and slurs.

Several pitches may be encoded concurrently in a single spine by using the Humdrum multiple-stop convention: pitches within multiple-stops are separated by single spaces. For example, the following example encodes a 4-note tonic major chord using two solfa spines — each spine containing a double-stop.

Pitch tokens may be modified by the presence of additional signifiers. The open brace `{' denotes the beginning of a phrase. The closed brace `}' denotes the end of a phrase. The open parenthesis `(' denotes the beginning of a slur. The closed parenthesis `)' denotes the end of a slur. The semicolon `;' denotes a pause.

Rest tokens are denoted by the lower-case letter `r'.

Barlines are represented using the "common system" for barlines — see barlines.

FILE TYPE

File type is dubbed `.sol'.

SIGNIFIERS

The following table summarizes the solfa mappings of signifiers and signifieds.

Summary of solfa Signifiers

EXAMPLES

A sample document is given below:

   !! Johannes Brahms         
   !! Waltz Opus 39, No. 15   
   \*\*solfa                  \*\*solfa
   \*M3/4                     \*M3/4
   \*A:                       \*A:
   =2                         =2
   do                         so mi
   so mi                      .
   .                          mi do
   mi so                      mi do
   .                          so mi
   =3                         =3
   do                         la fa
   .                          so
   .                          fa
   fa fa                      so mi
   la do                      fa re
   =4                         =4
   do                         so mi
   \*-                        \*-

PERTINENT COMMANDS

The following Humdrum command accepts solfa encoded data as inputs:

  <span class="tool">vox</span>   determine active and inactive voices in a Humdrum file

The following Humdrum command produces solfa data as output:

  <span class="tool">solfa</span>   translates <span class="rep">kern</span>, <span class="rep">pitch</span>, <span class="rep">solfg</span>, <span class="rep">Tonh</span>    -- ------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------

TANDEM INTERPRETATIONS

The following tandem interpretations can be used in conjunction with solfa:

Tandem interpretations for solfa

SEE ALSO

` barlines, **deg, **degree, **kern, **pitch, **solfg, **Tonh, vox`