Guido d'Arezzo was heavily influenced by Muslim musical theories (the Arabs preserved the modes of the Greeks) like those of Gerbert of Aurillac [1] of Spain. In this way, he obtained ancient secrets in music that the Catholoc Church had not burnt. Guido d'Arezzo reworked the church modes in his book, Micrologus. Based on the ancient Greek theories, Guido proposed yet another new hexachord system for the church modes, known as the solfeggio scale, which has recently gained popularity as a spiritually uplifting scale. He defined pitch differences for the notes of a scale.
Guildo named scale notes, using six syllables, ut, re, mi, fa, sol, and la, taken from the words of an old Latin hymn. [2] Guido named the lowest octave note "gamma ut," shortened to "gamut" to identify the entire range of octaves. The term "gamut" has since been taken to describe a complete range of any spectrum, such as the range of visible colors. [3]
Guildo described how scales should be built. The primitive, folk music in Europe was based on a system of threes and likewise, so is Guildo's solfeggio scale. When the Pythagorean skein is applied to the cycles per second of the Solfeggio frequencies, each note reduces to a 3, 6, 9 sequence. Unlike other current scales, Guildo's system used the same tuning developed by Pythagoras, but with one really big difference. Guildo's system avoided the tritone chord. The tritone created a phi interval that was associated with the Egyptian mysteries and Paganism. [4] Guildo's system spread throughout the monasteries in Europe.
The golden ratio (or phi) is 1.618033.... An interval of a minor sixth equates to 1.6 and a major sixth is 1.666.... An interval in between these two creates the golden ratio in the cracks in between notes. This number proves to be significant by the numbers of times and places that it appears in the macrocosm and the microcosm - from the simplest algae to the largest tree, from the nautilus shell to the unfolding of a fern, from the shapes seen in distant galaxies to proportions found in our bodies. Whoever created the universe favored this number.
Phi is an irrational and infinitely repeating number that does not correspond to any harmonic proportions. In fact it is anti-harmonic. It kills resonant vibration, but it also facilitates the flow of energy between different harmonics. In contrast, a major 6th is least destructive in its interference patterns than any other combination of tones. This is indisputable science. [5] This vibration is essential in nature!
References
[1] Later becoming Pope Sylvester II, d. 1003
[2] Engel, Carl. The Most Ancient Nations: Assyrians, Egyptians and Hebrews with Special Reference to Recent Discoveries in Western Asia and in Egypt, Murray: London, 1864, Pg. 364.
[3] Merrick, Richard. Interference: A Grand Scientific Musical Theory, Merrick: Texas, 2002, Pg. 42.
[4] Merrick, Richard. Interference: A Grand Scientific Musical Theory, Merrick: Texas, 2002, Pg. 42.