Note: This art was practiced by the Greeks; but six of the
seven syllables now in use are generally attributed to
Guido d' Arezzo, an Italian monk of the eleventh
century, who is said to have taken them from the first
syllables of the first six lines of the following
stanza of a monkish hymn to St. John the Baptist.
Ut queant laxis Resonare fibris Mira gestorum
Famuli tuorum Solve polluti Labii reatum, Sancte
Joannes. Professor Skeat says the name of the
seventh note, si, was also formed by him [Guido] from
the initials of the two words of the last line; but
this is disputed, Littr['e] attributing the first use
of it to Anselm of Flanders long afterwards. The
syllable do is often substituted for ut.