Music in the Air

I’ve been a party to a few hot debates recently about which tonal syllable system is better. The front runners are fixed do and movable do. They may be the only runners…

Cutting right to the chase, I subscribe to the “moveable do with la-based minor” system. In major, I will always sing the resting tone “doooooo” (as in, a deer). In minor, I will always sing the resting tone “laaaaaaa” (as in, to follow sol).

The modes follow suit, with re-based dorian, mi-based phrygian, and so on. The actual note name (F, G#, D, etc.) does not change a tone’s syllable; rather, the tone’s placement within a given tonal context dictates its syllable.

There are a few reasons why I’m “pro-movable,” but I’ll focus on one today: music in the air. Scores facilitate communication and distribution of musical ideas, but the music itself lives only when it is breathed into sound waves.

And in the air, you don’t hear note names or key signatures; you hear function. You hear resting tone, dominant, subdominant, dissonance, resolution. I believe that movable do gives us easy language to generalize and describe the functions that we hear without having to reference the score or specific notes.