Editing Ut queant laxis

{{Short description|Latin hymn in honour of John the Baptist}}
[[File:Ut queant laxis Gregorian notation Benedictine tradition.gif|thumb|upright=1.4|"Ut queant laxis" in [[neume]] notation]]
[[File:Ut queant.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|"{{Lang|la|Ut queant laxis|italic=no}}" in modern notation]]
"'''{{Lang|la|Ut queant laxis|italic=no}}'''" or "'''{{Lang|la|Hymnus in Ioannem|italic=no}}'''" is a [[Latin]] [[hymn]] in honor of [[John the Baptist]], written in [[Horatian]] [[Sapphic stanza|Sapphics]]<ref>Stuart Lyons, ''Music in the Odes of Horace'' (2010), Oxford, Aris & Phillips, {{ISBN|978-0-85668-844-7}}</ref> with text traditionally attributed to [[Paulus Diaconus]], the eighth-century [[Lombards|Lombard]] historian. It is famous for its part in the history of [[musical notation]], in particular [[solmization]].  The hymn belongs to the tradition of [[Gregorian chant]].

It is not known who wrote the melody. [[Guido of Arezzo]] possibly composed it,<ref name=Larousse>{{in lang|fr}} [http://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/musdico/Ut_queant_laxis/170480 Ut queant laxis] in ''Encyclopédie Larousse''</ref> but he more likely used an existing melody. A variant of the melody appears in an eleventh-century musical setting of Horace's poem [[Odes_(Horace)|''Ode to Phyllis'']] ([[ wikisource:la:Carmina (Horatius)/Liber IV/Carmen XI|4.11]]) recorded in a manuscript in France.<ref>This manuscript H425 is held in [[University of Montpellier|Bibliothèque de l'école de Médecine]], [[Montpellier]].</ref>

==Structure==
The hymn uses classical [[Metre (poetry)|metre]]s: the [[Sapphic stanza]] consisting of three Sapphic [[hendecasyllable]]s followed by an [[adonic|adonius]] (a type of [[dimeter]]).

The chant is useful for teaching singing because of the way it uses successive notes of the [[Scale (music)|scale]]: the first six musical phrases of each [[stanza]] begin on a successively higher notes of the [[hexachord]], giving ''ut–re–mi–fa–so–la''; though ''ut'' is replaced by [[Do (musical note)|''do'']] in modern [[solfège]]. The naming of the notes of the [[hexachord]] by the first syllable of each [[hemistich]] (half line of verse) of the first verse is usually attributed to [[Guido of Arezzo]]. Guido, who was active in the eleventh century, is regarded as the father of modern musical notation. He made use of clefs (C & F clefs) and invented the ''ut-re-mi-fa-sol-la'' notation. The hymn does not help with the seventh tone as the last line, ''Sancte Iohannes'', breaks the ascending pattern. The syllable ''si'', for the seventh tone, was added in the 18th century.

The first stanza is:
{{listen|type=music
|filename=Johannes.Hymnus.ogg
|title=Ut queant laxis
|description=First verse of the hymn (Gregorian chant)
}}
<poem style="margin-left: 2em;">'''Ut''' queant laxīs
'''re'''sonāre fibrīs
'''Mī'''ra gestōrum
'''fa'''mulī tuōrum,
'''Sol'''ve pollūtī
'''la'''biī reātum,
'''S'''āncte '''I'''ohannēs.</poem>

It may be translated: ''So that your servants may, with loosened voices, resound the wonders of your deeds, clean the guilt from our stained lips, O Saint John.''

A paraphrase by Cecile Gertken, [[Order of Saint Benedict|OSB]] (1902–2001) preserves the key syllables and loosely evokes the original meter:
<poem style="margin-left: 2em;">'''Do''' let our voices
'''re'''sonate most purely,
'''mi'''racles telling,
'''fa'''r greater than many;
'''so l'''et our tongues be
'''la'''vish in your praises,
'''S'''aint '''J'''ohn the Baptist.<ref>Gertken, Cecile: ''Feasts and Saints'', 1981</ref></poem>

''Ut'' is now mostly replaced by ''Do'' in [[solfège]] due to the latter's [[open syllable|open]] sound, in deference to Italian theorist [[Giovanni Battista Doni]].<ref name="McNaught">
{{cite journal
  | last       = McNaught
  | first      = W. G.
  | year       = 1893
  | title      = The History and Uses of the Sol-fa Syllables
  | journal    = [[Proceedings of the Musical Association]]
  | volume     = 19
  | pages      = 43
  | publisher  = Novello, Ewer and Co.
  | location   = London
  | issn       = 0958-8442
  | url        = https://books.google.com/books?id=nNYPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA43
  | access-date = 2010-12-12}}</ref> The word "Ut" is still in use to name the [[C-clef]]. The seventh note was not part of the medieval hexachord and does not occur in this melody, and it was originally called "si" from "'''S'''ancte '''I'''oannes" ([[Johannes]]).<ref name=Larousse /> In the nineteenth century, [[Sarah Glover]], an English music teacher, renamed "si" to "ti" so that every syllable might [[Tonic sol-fa|be notated by its initial letter]]. But this was not adopted in countries using [[fixed do solfège]]: in Romance languages "si" is used alike for B and B flat, and no separate syllable is required for sharp "sol".
{{Listen|type=music|filename=Ut Queant Laxis.ogg|title=Melody}}

==Liturgical use==
In the [[Roman Rite]], the hymn is sung in the [[Liturgy of the Hours|Divine Office]] on June 24, the Feast of the Nativity of [[John the Baptist]]. The full hymn is divided into three parts, with "Ut queant laxis" sung at [[Vespers]], "Antra deserti" sung at [[Matins]], "O nimis felix" sung at [[Lauds]], and [[doxology|doxologies]] added after the first two parts.

== See also ==
* [[Diatonic and chromatic]]
* [[Do-Re-Mi]] (song). The lyrics teach the solfege syllables by linking them with English homophones (or near-homophones)
* [[Gamut (music)|Gamut]]
* [[Guidonian hand]]
* [[Solmization]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{wikisource|Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Ut Queant Laxis Resonare Fibris|''Catholic Encyclopedia'' (1913): "Ut queant laxis resonare fibris" by Hugh Thomas Henry}}
* [http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php?title=Ut_queant_laxis&oldid=428841 Full text, translation and some polyphonic settings] at [[Choral Public Domain Library]]
* [http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1113 a short account] at Catholicculture.org
* [http://italian.about.com/library/weekly/aa092700a.htm An alternative translation]
* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15244a.htm Catholic Encyclopedia article]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ut Queant Laxis}}
[[Category:11th century in music]]
[[Category:Christian hymns in Latin]]
[[Category:Musical notation]]