Paolo Diacono wrote a hymn to Saint John the Baptist (ca 720 - 799), the Latin words Ut queant laxis, resonare fibris, mira gestorum, famuli tuorum, solve polluti, labii reatum, which translate to, "So that Your servants may sing at the top of their voices the wonders of Your Acts, and absolve the fault from their stained lips."
1. UT - Queant Laxis
2. RE - Sonare Fibris
3. MI - Ra Gestorum
4. FA - Muli Tuorum
5. SOL - Ve Polluti
6. LA - 0 Biireatum
Using the syllables ut, re, mi, fa, sol, and la as names for the six tones, C to A, an Italian monk named Guido d'Arezzo (990-1050) created the system of Solmization, a system of using syllables, especially sol-fa like syllables, to represent the tones of the scale (known as the Guido System). Later in history Ut was replaced by the more easily singable Do, and another syllable, si or ti, was added at the end, giving the scale of seven syllables called do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti, which forms the present basic system of singing names for the tones of the scale. The syllable sol was later shortened to so, making all of the syllables uniform in spelling and all ending with a vowel. This allowed for ease of remembering for faster learning and making it easy to do 'sight singing', or being able to instantly sing new music in tune from reproduced standardized sheet music.
