charlie2 said:
1.So solfier is not humming, I take it, because you don't speak the notes, you just "reproduce" the melody when you hum. Is that correct?
Yes, that is perfectly correct.
2.What is the difference between speaking the notes and chanter avec le nom des notes?
I'm not sure I understand your question. The difference lies in the fact that speaking is not singing, that's all. When you just speak there is no melody.
Just an addition about "solmisation"
The English use letters to name the notes : A to G (the Germans use A to H, but I won't go into details)
These letters are used as
absolute pitches. So if you change the key of the melody, the letters change. In my example inf F major, F-G-A-F would become Aflat - Bflat - C - Aflat, if the key were A flat.
Whenever the English want to use
relative pitches, my melody (which, incidentally is "Frère Jacques" or "Bruder Jacob" or whatever its English name)
becomes doh-ray-me-doh* regardless of the key (C major or F major or Aflat major or whatever)
*referred to as "syllables" at the end of my post.
The French always use doh-ray-me (in French, do-ré-mi) for
absolute pitches (never letters). So if they were to sing Frère Jacques in F major, they would say "fa-sol-la-fa" and in A, "la-si-do-la".
In some "modern" (I mean post 19th century
) methods of teaching music, the French may also use "solmization" (the word also exists in English and is a synonym of "sol-fa" and also "tonic sol-fa") and use do-ré-mi, etc.. for
relative pitches as well, that is, exactly as the English do.
To sum up
French system
absolute pitches ----> syllables ----> solfier
relative pitches -----> syllables ----> "solmiser"
English system
absolute pitches ---> letters ----> ????
relative pitches ----> syllables---> to sol-fa/ to solmizate
Phew...
