Curio

State Library of New South Wales
The hand gamut, 13 March 1790

The hand gamut, 13 March 1790

RB/MSS090
Manuscript sight-singing tutor

The manuscript employs a method of sight-singing known as solmisation. Attributed to medieval Italian music theorist Guido of Arezzo (c. 991–after 1033), the set of six solmisation syllables — ut – re – mi – fa – sol – la — was used in the oral teaching of melodies. These ascending notes were known as the hexachord. A ‘hand gamut’ was a mnemonic device, or visual aid, on which solmisation syllables were mapped to parts of the human hand. A teacher would indicate which notes to sing by pointing to particular finger joints. Although it first appeared after Guido of Arezzo’s time, the hand gamut is frequently referred to as the Guidonian hand.

Footnotes

Meredith Lawn, Music Archivist, State Library of NSW

Various forms of the solmisation system are still used today, the most common being Solfège and Tonic Sol-fa.  Ut was changed to do in the seventeenth century and a seventh note, si (or ti), was added to complete the diatonic scale.

The popular song ‘Do-Re-Mi’ from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music, used by Maria to teach the von Trapp children how to sing, is based on solmisation. 

As well as providing a hand gamut, Armour’s manuscript presents 12 duets for tenor and bass. 

The tunes selected by Armour are likely to have been well known in 1790. Seven of them were among the 12 ’common’ tunes’ found in various editions of the Scottish Psalter published in the seventeenth century – further evidence of a Scottish provenance.

Little is known about the author or provenance of this manuscript, but it appears to have been written for Francis Cathcart, whose surname suggests a Scottish origin.