Tonic Sol Fa

Grove Music Online
Tonic Sol-fa
Bernarr Rainbow and Charles Edward McGuire
https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.28124
Published in print: 20 January 2001
Published online: 20 January 2001
This version: 01 July 2014
updated and revised, 1 July 2014
A form of musical notation and the system of sight-singing which

depends on it invented by Sarah Anna Glover and prominently
disseminated, by John Curwen and John Spencer Curwen beginning
in the middle of the nineteenth century. Tonic Sol-fa had its origin in
Guidonian solmization, depending like that system upon aural
perception of relative pitch (see Solmization). The notation
represents solfège syllables with individual letters (e.g. doh = d, ray
= r, me = m, etc.) and rhythm via a combination of spacing and
punctuation marks. It is a system based on movable doh, which
distinguished it from contemporary fixed-doh systems, including
those of John Hullah and Joseph Mainzer. Tonic Sol-fa quickly gained
acceptance in Great Britain and internationally in the nineteenth
century and remains in use today, particularly in former British
mission stations. Glover and John Curwen originally promoted the
notation as an aid to children and beginning singers. Its rise was
rapid: by the 1860s, singers of all abilities used Tonic Sol-fa; by the
1880s, hundreds of thousands of British singers had been trained in
the method. It became the notation of choice for contemporary
moral philanthropic movements, such as temperance and missionary
organizations, and some of its exponents thought it to be superior to
staff notation. Consequently misunderstood by many professional
musicians, the system passed through a period of disfavour and
neglect in Great Britain, while remaining in use either in its original
form or in adapted forms throughout the world. It is now seen to
offer distinct advantages when employed in the early stages of
learning to read from notes. In the West, it is most frequently
encountered in the modified form adapted by Zoltán Kodály for use
in Hungarian schools (see Schools).
1. Historical background
The trajectory of Tonic Sol-fa’s history as a notation and an

educational system can be broken into three eras: (1) 1835–80, from
its invention by Sarah Anna Glover and its adaptation by John
Curwen until his death; (2) 1880–1916, its consolidation under John
Curwen’s son, John Spencer Curwen; and (3) 1916 to the present, its
persistence in elementary music education. Within the first two eras,
both Curwens essentially worked to control the public image of the
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notation and its teaching. After 1916, without a strong leader
advocating it, the notation ceased to have a great impact on British
musical life, and the sense of a Tonic Sol-fa ‘movement’ dissipated.
(i) Origins and Promotion by John Curwen

(1835–80).
In 1841 the Congregational Church asked the Rev. John Curwen, a

young minister, to find a reliable method of teaching singing to
children. Curwen was already known as a teacher of remarkable
skill, but had little musical ability himself. He had already attempted
unsuccessfully to teach his own schoolchildren to sing, but had
found anything beyond teaching melodies by rote unattainable
because of his ignorance of musical notation. He found the technical
information supplied by the instrumental primers of the day to be
incomprehensible without the aid of a teacher. Later attendance at
singing classes organized by Hullah convinced Curwen that a fixed
sol-fa system which linked doh permanently to the note C inevitably
led to bafflement when other keys were introduced.
During his research, Curwen examined Glover’s Scheme for

Rendering Psalmody Congregational (1835). The book detailed a
method that Glover used to train a remarkably proficient children’s
choir for the church at which her father was vicar. Depending upon a
notation of sol-fa initials, Glover designed her Scheme to familiarize
the pupil immediately with the aural effect of note relationships,
rather than introducing him or her first to a catalogue of musical
facts and symbols. Curwen’s own musical abilities increased greatly
after studying Glover’s book: he was soon able to read a psalm tune
from her notation, and on teaching the first steps of her method to a
child at his lodgings, he was convinced that he had found the system
he was seeking.
Curwen published early in 1842 a series of ‘Lessons on Singing’ in

the Independent Magazine (a Congregationalist journal he edited),
making several amendments of his own to Glover’s original method.
She had anglicized the traditional sol-fa names to read Do, Ra, Me,
Fah, Sole, Lah and Te; he preferred doh, ray, me, fah, soh, lah, and
te as being less ambiguous. She employed capital letters for her
notation of initials; he used small letters because they took up less
room on the page and were available in greater quantity in the stock
of any journeyman printer. She codified keys by reference to an
elaborate chart; he preferred to state the key simply as ‘Doh is C’, or
‘Key C’. These and many other similar modifications reflect Curwen’s
practical mindset. He gave the name ‘Tonic Sol-fa’ to his version to
emphasize its key-centred nature – as opposed to the ‘fixed’ sol-fa
Hullah and Mainzer taught.
What had begun in 1841 as a private investigation into methods of

teaching music eventually grew into a nationwide organization with
an enrolled membership numbering tens of thousands, and a wide
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international reach into British colonies and mission stations.
Throughout the 1840s, the dissemination of Tonic Sol-fa depended
greatly on word of mouth and demonstration classes taught by
Curwen himself, predominantly for nonconformist organizations. In
1852 Curwen reached a wider British audience through a series of
articles about Tonic Sol-fa he was commissioned to write for
Cassell’s Popular Educator. These articles resonated with a broader
public, since ‘self-improvement’ and ‘rational recreation’
represented an ideal promoted particularly to respectable and
ambitious members of the working and lower-middle classes.
Curwen capitalized on the popularity of these articles to create an
infrastructure for disseminating the notation, which included a
private printing press and publishing company – called by several
names in the 19th century, but eventually known as the Curwen
Press – located in Plaistow to print scores in the notation as well as
method books; the Tonic Sol-fa Association (founded 1853) to
provide demonstrations of the notation and to propagate its use; a
magazine to popularize the method, the Tonic Sol-fa Reporter
(specimen issue released in 1851; 1853-89, continued as the Musical
Herald, 1889-1920); and the Tonic Sol-fa College (founded 1869;
located in a permanent building in 1879), to train educators to teach
the method. By 1864 the demands made upon him by his musical
activities led Curwen to resign his ministry and devote his energies
wholly to the movement. Not only was Tonic Sol-fa established in
amateur choral organizations throughout Britain long before
Curwen’s death in 1880, but it was adopted as the recognized
method of teaching music in schools at home and nonconformist
mission stations abroad.
This popularity of Tonic Sol-fa was due to many factors, including the
need for efficient teaching methods for the increased numbers of
schoolchildren in Britain after the passage of the Elementary
Education Act of 1870. Since Curwen had developed Tonic Sol-fa
originally to teach children, and created effective methods for
teacher instruction that could be mastered by even the non-musical
individual, Tonic Sol-fa was a perfect fit for early musical education.
But Curwen succeeded because he caught the elements of the
progressive and moralistic spirit of the age, promoting the notation
as scientific and edifying. He was influenced heavily by
contemporary Pestalozzoian educational theory and the practical
work of the American hymn compiler and pedagogue Lowell Mason,
which held that knowledge could be acquired through sense-
impression and have both a practical and a moral bent. When
promoting the use of the notation for both children and adults, he
thus claimed that it would reform the individual by causing him or
her to sing songs with moral import, by creating a sense of
accomplishment through hard work and mastery of skills, and by
giving singers a hobby that would distract them from other activities
presumed to be damaging to the working- and lower-middle classes,
such as drinking, smoking, and gambling. Emphasizing the
purported edifying tone of Tonic Sol-fa, Curwen and his followers
Page 3 of 17
successfully promoted its use within contemporary reform
movements, such as temperance, anti-slavery, children’s education,
and missionary work.
Another factor in the success of the notation was that Curwen

publicized it, but did not try to control it. He did shepherd particular
causes as he saw fit; his press published or gave subventions to
many simplified method books and musical services for the
temperance movement and sent type to make the printing of Tonic
Sol-fa notation easier to the London Missionary Society’s station in
Madagascar. But Curwen believed that the notation was universal,
and condoned its adoption even by religions he condemned. Thus
brief discussions can be found in the Tonic Sol-fa Reporter of the
notation being used by Anglican, Catholic, and Jewish congregations.
The efficiency of the notation and Curwen’s convincing promotion of
it caused many individual teachers and choral conductors, such as
Henry Coward and Joseph Proudman, to champion it.
The use of Tonic Sol-fa went far beyond Great Britain, as is evident
in the pages of the Tonic Sol-fa Reporter. Its compact character,
combined with the fact that it could be printed easily and cheaply
with any monospace font, meant that Anglophone missionaries –
particularly nonconformist ones – quickly adapted it. Thus it spread
throughout the second half of the 19th century to Africa, Asia,
Australasia, and the Americas. In many cases, such as its use by the
London Missionary Society in Madagascar and South Africa, it
became the only notation used or promoted by missionaries. British
and North American missionary training colleges sponsored classes
in the notation for students about to enter the field. The Salvation
Army published hymnbooks in the notation in mission fields
throughout the world, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints used the notation in North America from the 1860s.
Curwen was 25 when he published his first account of Tonic Sol-fa in

the Independent Magazine. He devoted the rest of his life to the
perfection and propagation of the method. Constantly examining the
works of other teachers both at home and abroad, he incorporated
into his own system any device from any other educational method
that helped make the pupil’s task simpler. Curwen is thus more an
agent of synthesis and dissemination than the inventor of an original
method of teaching. His success stemmed from his ability to harness
Tonic Sol-fa to both education and moral edification, and his ability
to create a system of teaching and teacher instruction that was
simple and efficient. Coupled with the cheap publicity and printing
possible in the second half of the 19th century, this made Tonic Sol-
fa a force that required recognition.
Page 4 of 17
(ii) Consolidation by John Spencer Curwen
(1880–1916).
Upon the death of John Curwen in 1880, John Spencer Curwen took
control of the Tonic Sol-fa infrastructure created by his father. He
became editor of the Tonic Sol-fa Reporter, leader of the Tonic Sol-fa
Association, and president of the Tonic Sol-fa College. As a musician
trained at the RAM, his goals differed from those of the elder
Curwen: instead of simply popularizing the notation, Spencer
Curwen sought to show its relevance to the musical world around
him. Part of this mission involved attempts to raise the abilities and
tastes of Tonic Sol-fa singers in Great Britain. He abandoned his
father’s editorial policy in the Reporter merely to celebrate music
making by the notation’s singers without criticizing potential musical
shortcomings. In 1889 he changed the name of the journal to the
Musical Herald, and began to include a mixture of reports on Tonic
Sol-fa activities as well as wider musical discussions, including
reviews of compositional premieres and performances. The Musical
Herald also included interviews with important contemporary
composers such as Charles Villiers Stanford, Hubert Parry, and
Edward Elgar. He presented these interviews beside others with
prominent Tonic Sol-fa educators and conductors, such as Proudman
and Coward. Through making the Musical Herald less about the
notation and more a critical view of music making in Great Britain
and throughout the world, Spencer Curwen’s attempt to
‘mainstream’ Tonic Sol-fa and its infrastructure worked. Indeed, by
July 1901 he claimed that the magazine had the highest circulation
of any musical journal in Great Britain.
While less prolific as a writer than his father, Spencer Curwen

continued to publish revised editions of John Curwen’s technique
book as well as other works on music education. He also supported
many of the same moral and philanthropic causes as his father. To
sustain Tonic Sol-fa’s encouragement of singing among working- and
lower-middle class people, Spencer Curwen founded a musical
competition at Stratford and East London in 1882, and had the
Curwen Press fund numerous prizes (particularly for Tonic Sol-fa
reading choirs) at that and other competition festivals throughout
Great Britain. He sustained the support of musical efforts by the
temperance and missionary movements and their choirs, though he
would criticize music used or performed by them that he thought
inferior, either in its quality or its execution. He also made sure to
publicize the ongoing growth of the army of Tonic Sol-fa singers: by
1889 nearly every major British musical festival choir consisted of a
mixture of singers of Tonic Sol-fa (styled the ‘new notation’ by its
adherents) and staff notation (referred to as the ‘old notation’ by the
same).
The success of Tonic Sol-fa under the leadership of both Curwens

came at a cost. When a notation system used predominantly by the
working classes and nonconformists, it was usually considered
beneath the notice of most professional musicians and writers on
Page 5 of 17
music. But because Spencer Curwen sought to make Tonic Sol-fa a
central part of British musical life, criticism by professionals became
focused and stronger. Spencer Curwen could count on many allies to
help him promote the notation, from the above-mentioned Coward to
the composer John Stainer and the music educator and journalist
William Gray McNaught. But attacks increased. In the 1880s George
Macfarren claimed that learning Tonic Sol-fa created a musician
unable to read staff notation. Stanford argued in the 1890s that
exclusively learning Tonic Sol-fa notation prevented singers from
becoming familiar with the great instrumental repertoire. Thus in
the minds of many professional music educators, the system was
limited in its application. This was not helped by the fact that some
Tonic Sol-fa singers saw the notation as superior to staff notation.
Spencer Curwen responded with a series of primers and tutorials
that would teach the Tonic Sol-fa singer how to read staff notation,
using the same efficient systems pioneered by his father. While a
number of these went through multiple editions (A Staff Notation
Primer, first published in 1884, reached its 12th edition by 1912),
Spencer Curwen could not convince the majority of Tonic Sol-fa
singers to take up the other notation. Indeed, with so many using
Tonic Sol-fa by the end of the century, he could also no longer
present the same sort of moral guidance to its singers. Thus, moral
reform movements with which Spencer Curwen had little sympathy,
including women’s suffrage and the Salvation Army, used the
notation. And other publishers, such as Novello, William Hamilton,
George Gallie, Bayley & Ferguson, and Burns and Lambert,
published Tonic Sol-fa scores in genres that the Curwen Press
avoided, such as opera and operetta.
(iii) Tonic Sol-fa after the Curwens (1916 to

the present).
No other charismatic leader took over the promotion of Tonic Sol-fa

after Spencer Curwen’s death in 1916. The rebukes by Macfarren,
Stanford and others, as well as the failure of some of the more
radical adherents to the notation to integrate the learning of Tonic
Sol-fa with an understanding of staff notation, led to the perception
by professional music educators that many of Curwen’s British
followers were in a musical cul-de-sac; they also incidentally brought
Tonic Sol-fa itself into disrepute in the United Kingdom. Following
Spencer Curwen’s death, even the Musical Herald swiftly tapered its
coverage of Tonic Sol-fa–related organizations. When it
amalgamated with the Musical News in 1921 to become The Musical
News and Herald (1921–28), its reports largely avoided reviews of
choral concerts and compositions. Articles and editorials in the
journal also reflected contemporary suspicion of rational recreation,
attempting to debunk the idea that choral music could somehow be
morally edifying. The Curwen Press turned its focus away from
providing cheap and excellent choral music to the singer, instead
promoting new works by composers such as Ralph Vaughan Williams
Page 6 of 17
and Ethel Smyth. Other factors signaled a slow retreat for Tonic Sol-
fa: defeat of temperance legislation in the 1890s meant that one of
the most prominent philanthropic movements of the 19th century
and one of the Curwen Press’ largest customer bases ceased to need
choral music, and the rise of popular music after World War I led
many in the working and middle classes away from active forms of
musical participation like singing into more passive ones, such as
listening to recordings and radio broadcasts.
Yet Tonic Sol-fa persists, in the forms presented initially by John

Curwen as well as in altered ones. Some British teachers today
employ a modified version of Curwen’s original system.In such
cases, the notation is frequently used as Curwen originally intended:
as a way to teach beginners, particularly children, and lead them
eventually to the use of staff notation. The Salvation Army used it in
its mission fields until the 1970s. It remains in use by music
educators and publishers in Africa and Asia, and many of those
taught in schools founded by British or Anglophone missionaries first
learn hymns via Tonic Sol-fa.
2. The notation as originally used.
(i) Pitch.
The notes of the rising major scale are represented, whatever the
key, by the symbols shown in ex.1a. When notes rise above that
compass they are marked as in ex.1b; similarly, notes falling below
standard pitch are marked as in ex.1c. Melodies having their lower
tonic within the octave above middle C are treated as standard pitch
(ex.2). Tenor and bass parts are written an octave higher than sung.
Tonic Sol-fa 2. The notation as originally used. (i) Pitch.: Ex.1
Chromatic degrees are noted by changing the vowel of the sol-fa

name concerned (see ex.3). Sharpened notes use ‘e’ (pronounced
‘ee’), flattened notes use ‘a’ (pronounced ‘aw’).
Page 7 of 17
Chromatic note names are always written in full. They are employed
only for ornamental notes and transient modulation. When extended
modulation occurs the new tonic is named ‘doh’, the transition being
expressed by a ‘bridge note’ with a double name (ex.4). The upper
name relates to the old key and the lower to the new key. The bridge
note in ex.4 is sung as s’doh. Modulation to the subdominant is
notated as in ex.5, in which the bridge note is sung as m’te. As this
example shows, it is the practice to state the name of the key above
the symbols at the beginning of a melody, and when modulation
occurs to name the new key, adding the sol-fa name of the new
‘foreign’ note to be encountered – in this case fah. A bridge note is
always introduced at the point which makes the transition easiest for
the singer, whether this corresponds to the true harmonic situation
or not.
(ii) Rhythm.
Curwen’s method of notating rhythm depends basically upon the
bar-line and the colon. The bar-line performs the same function as in
staff notation; the colon precedes every weak beat within a bar.
Subsidiary accents within bars are indicated by shortened bar-lines.
To help the eye, equal beats are represented on the page by equal
lateral spacing – no matter how many notes share a beat (ex.6 – time
signatures are not used: they are shown in this example only to
clarify). A beat is divided into halves by placing a full stop in the
Page 8 of 17
middle of it; into quarters by placing a comma in the middle of each
half (see ex.7). A note is continued through another beat or part of a
beat by means of a dash. Slurs are represented by horizontal lines
beneath the notes (as in ex.8). To economize on horizontal space, the
common figure consisting of a dotted quaver followed by a
semiquaver does not employ the dash. Instead, full stop and comma
are brought close together – to show that the previous sound is
continued (ex.9). Rests are not used. Silence is indicated by vacant
space. Triplets are shown by using two inverted commas (ex.10).
Tonic Sol-fa 2. The notation as originally used. (ii) Rhythm.: Ex.6
Page 9 of 17
(iii) The minor scale.

Minor keys are regarded as derived from their relative majors, the
tonic being called ‘lah’. The sharpened 6th of the melodic minor is
named ‘ba’ (pronounced ‘bay’) to distinguish it from the sharpened
4th of the major scale (ex.11). Theoretical considerations apart, this
method saves great complication and the introduction of sundry
chromatic note names.
Tonic Sol-fa 2. The notation as originally used. (iii) The minor scale.: Ex.
11
3. Method of teaching.
Even a thorough knowledge of the notation of Tonic Sol-fa can leave

a misleading impression of the manner in which Curwen intended it
to be taught. Contrary to popular belief, the beginner was not first
introduced to the sounds and sol-fa names of the degrees of the
major scale and then required to practise pitching random diatonic
intervals.
To begin with, Curwen taught without the aid of an instrument,

patterning everything with his own voice. The aim was to make the
learner independent, and to render progress easy and natural. But
when sung, the major scale, with its succession of tones and
semitones, appeared too complex for beginners. Moreover, ability to
strike, say, a major 3rd from the tonic does not imply ability to strike
the same interval elsewhere in the octave. The mental impression of
a major 3rd based on the tonic is quite different from that of the
same interval based upon the dominant.
Curwen argued that every note of the scale produced its own
‘mental effect’. He therefore insisted that the pupil must be given
the opportunity to experience and attempt to describe the character
of the different degrees for himself. He began by teaching the notes
of the tonic chord – not the scale – emphasizing its bold character
when the notes were sounded slowly in succession, then inviting the
pupil to note for himself the firmness of soh and the calm of me.
When, at a later stage, the remaining degrees of the scale were
gradually introduced, an attempt was made to encourage the pupil
to describe their individual qualities. The expectation was that he
Page 10 of 17
would find lah sad, te incisive, ray expectant and fah desolate. The
precise terms employed were not important. The object was to fix
the individual character of each degree in the pupil’s mind and thus
equip him to recall that quality when the occasion arose – rather
than to calculate the position of a note by counting through the
scale.
Once the tonic chord had been made familiar Curwen went on to
introduce the dominant chord (ex.12). When the pupil was able to
sound its notes at will and recall their individual character, the
subdominant chord followed. In that way the complete range of the
scale was built up by means of concordant intervals easily imitated
by a beginner. With the octave complete, a period was spent
practising tunes and exercises within that compass.
Tonic Sol-fa 3. Method of teaching.: Ex.12
In teaching and exercising the notes of the scale a diagram known as

a Modulator was employed. Much of a pupil’s early vocal experience
was in singing melodies from the Modulator, following with his voice
the teacher’s pointer. The simplest form of Modulator displayed only
the notes of the major scale. A more comprehensive version (ex.13)
showed a key with its dominant (to the left) and subdominant (to the
right) and the chromatic degrees between.
Page 11 of 17
Almost the last of the devices which Curwen introduced to his
method was the series of ‘Manual Signs’ first brought into use in
1870 (see illustration). Curwen advocated their use because they
enabled the teacher to work facing his class, instead of towards the
Modulator. The commonest of the chromatic degrees could also be
indicated by slight modifications: fe, by pointing the first finger
horizontally to the left; ta, similarly to the right; and se, by pointing
straight forward. (For a broader discussion of manual signs see
Cheironomy.)
Manual signs introduced by John Curwen to aid instruction by Tonic Sol-

fa, from his ‘Standard Course of Lessons and Exercises in the Tonic Sol-
fa Method of Teaching Music’ (5/1880)
In general Curwen urged the teacher to begin his task without

employing any symbols at all, gradually introducing them as they
were needed to make the pupil recognize and recall what he already
knew. A staunch disciple of Pestalozzi, Curwen presented his own
paraphrase of the familiar Pestalozzian precepts: to let the easy
come before the difficult; to introduce the real and concrete before
the abstract; to teach the elemental before the compound; to do one
thing at a time; to introduce the common before the uncommon; to
teach the thing before the sign; to let each step arise out of what had
gone before; and to call the understanding to assist the skill.
Page 12 of 17
He thus separated the teaching of rhythm from the teaching of pitch.
Once familiar with the scale, his pupils were introduced to rhythmic
values by means of the Time Names (later known as Rhythm Names)
devised by Aimé Paris and anglicized by Curwen to form part of his
system. Ex.14 introduces the most common of these names in
Curwen’s version.
Before attempting to sing an unknown melody Curwen’s elementary

pupils were first required to chant its Time Names on a monotone.
Once they had mastered the rhythmic element they went on to tackle
the rise and fall of its pitch. Finally, the two elements were
combined.
With the major scale and simple rhythmic notation mastered,

Curwen next dealt with elementary modulation – to the dominant
and subdominant. Then came the minor mode, chromatic notes and
more distant modulations. With that total equipment supplemented
by regular practice, Curwen’s followers were able to sing with
confidence in local choirs, or in those massed performances of
oratorio which formed an essential part of the amateur musical life
of Britain in the second half of the 19th century. In the great
majority of cases, however, they were able to do so only because
John Curwen had made available over the years a vast repertory of
vocal scores printed in Tonic Sol-fa notation (see Notation). A
contemporary estimate claimed that by 1890 more than 39,000
copies of the Tonic Sol-fa edition of Handel’s Messiah had been sold.
That figure is an indication of the success of the movement to bring
music to the people at large
4. Modern developments.
Without the Curwens to lead and promote Tonic Sol-fa after 1916,
teaching of the notation decreased in Great Britain. Its aging British
adherents could still count on publishers such as the Curwen Press
and Boosey & Hawkes to print parallel scores in both staff and Tonic
Sol-fa notation well into the middle of the 20th century. Tonic Sol-fa
persisted in other countries, particularly ones that had a strong
British missionary presence in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries, including Madagascar and South Africa. But Curwen’s and
Spencer Curwen’s policy of constantly revising the method was
Page 13 of 17
forgotten after their deaths and, unlike such acknowledged
continental adaptations of his work as Hundoegger’s Tonika-Do or
Kodály’s rendering, Tonic Sol-fa was allowed to petrify.
A working party set up at the University of London Institute of

Education in 1970–71 re-examined Tonic Sol-fa with the current
needs of schools in mind. It found that the letter notation could be
dispensed with, that sol-fa and staff notation could readily be
integrated, and that sight-singing in schools should be treated as a
means of sharpening aural awareness rather than an end in itself.
These findings were forwarded to the Tonic Sol-fa College, and a
collateral body, the Curwen Institute, was founded by Bernarr
Rainbow in 1974 to develop and promote a revised form of Tonic Sol-
fa on the lines recommended. As a result W.H. Swinburne published
The New Curwen Method (London, 1980–84), after two years’
experimental use in schools. It follows Curwen’s general principles
and uses hand signs, but abandons the original letter notation.
Instead, the hand signs are used as an introductory form of notation,
the hand being moved up and down an empty blackboard staff to
denote precise rise and fall of pitch. Partsinging is introduced at an
early stage in conjunction with devices to develop the inner ear, the
musical memory and the creative sense. Reading from staff notation
takes place from the earliest stages.
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Page 14 of 17
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G. Olwage: ‘Scriptions of the Choral: the History of Black

South African Choralism’, South African Journal of
Musicology, 22 (2002), 29–45
C. Dale: Music Analysis in Britain in the Nineteenth and

Early Twentieth Centuries (Aldershot, 2003)
Page 15 of 17
S.E. Taylor: ‘Easy, Cheap and True: Tonic Sol-fa in Print
and in the Concert Hall’, Brio, 40 (2003), 8–23
G. Olwage: ‘Discipline and Choralism: the Birth of of

Musical Colonialism’, Music, Power, and Politics, ed. A.J.
Randall (New York, 2004), 25–46
J. Southcott: ‘The First Tonic Sol-fa Missionary: Reverend

Robert Toy in Madagascar’, Research Studies in Music
Education, 23 (2004), 3–17
C.E. McGuire: ‘Music and Morality: John Curwen’s Tonic

Sol-fa, the Temperance Movement, and the Oratorios of
Edward Elgar’, Chorus and Community, ed. K. Ahlquist
(Urbana, 2006), 111–38
G. Olwage: ‘John Knox Bowke, Colonial Composer: Tales of

Race and Music’, JRMA, 131 (2006), 1–37
S.E. Taylor: ‘Finding Themselves: Musical Revolutions in

Nineteenth-Century Staffordshire’, Music in the British
Provinces, 1690–1914, ed. R. Cowgill and P. Holman
(Aldershot, 2007), 223–35
C.E. McGuire: Music and Victorian Philanthropy: the Tonic

Sol-fa Movement (Cambridge, 2009)
C.E. McGuire: ‘American Songs, Pastoral Nationalism and

the English Temperance Cantata’, in Music and
Performance Culture in Nineteenth-Century Britain:
Essays in Honour of Nicholas Temperley, ed. B. Zon
(2012)
C.E. McGuire: ‘Christianity, Civilization and Music:

Nineteenth-Century British Missionaries and the Control
of Malagasy Hymnology’, Music and Theology in
Nineteenth-Century Britain, ed. M. Clarke (2012), 79–95
P.R. Weliver: ‘Disciplining the Masses through Tonic Sol-

fa, or “the science of music”’, BRANCH: Britain,
Representation and Nineteenth-Century History, ed. D.F.
Felluga (2013)
B. Zon: Evolution and Victorian Musical Culture

(Cambridge, 2016)
Page 16 of 17
See also
chorus (i), §4: from the mid-18th century to the later 19th
curwen: (1) john curwen
glover, sarah anna
notation, §III, 5(iv): alphabetical, numerical and
solmization notations
schools, §III, 2: from the 19th century: the growth of
music in schools
wales
Page 17 of 17

Tonic Sol Fa

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A form of musical notation and the system of sight-singing which

The trajectory of Tonic Sol-fa’s history as a notation and an

(i) Origins and Promotion by John Curwen

In 1841 the Congregational Church asked the Rev. John Curwen, a

During his research, Curwen examined Glover’s Scheme for

Curwen published early in 1842 a series of ‘Lessons on Singing’ in

What had begun in 1841 as a private investigation into methods of

Another factor in the success of the notation was that Curwen

Curwen was 25 when he published his first account of Tonic Sol-fa in

While less prolific as a writer than his father, Spencer Curwen

The success of Tonic Sol-fa under the leadership of both Curwens

(iii) Tonic Sol-fa after the Curwens (1916 to

No other charismatic leader took over the promotion of Tonic Sol-fa

Yet Tonic Sol-fa persists, in the forms presented initially by John

2. The notation as originally used.

Tonic Sol-fa 2. The notation as originally used. (i) Pitch.: Ex.1

Tonic Sol-fa 2. The notation as originally used. (i) Pitch.: Ex.2

Chromatic degrees are noted by changing the vowel of the sol-fa

Tonic Sol-fa 2. The notation as originally used. (i) Pitch.: Ex.4

Tonic Sol-fa 2. The notation as originally used. (i) Pitch.: Ex.5

Tonic Sol-fa 2. The notation as originally used. (ii) Rhythm.: Ex.6

Tonic Sol-fa 2. The notation as originally used. (ii) Rhythm.: Ex.7

Tonic Sol-fa 2. The notation as originally used. (ii) Rhythm.: Ex.8

Tonic Sol-fa 2. The notation as originally used. (ii) Rhythm.: Ex.9

(iii) The minor scale.

Even a thorough knowledge of the notation of Tonic Sol-fa can leave

To begin with, Curwen taught without the aid of an instrument,

Tonic Sol-fa 3. Method of teaching.: Ex.12

In teaching and exercising the notes of the scale a diagram known as

Tonic Sol-fa 3. Method of teaching.: Ex.13

Manual signs introduced by John Curwen to aid instruction by Tonic Sol-

In general Curwen urged the teacher to begin his task without

Tonic Sol-fa 3. Method of teaching.: Ex.14

Before attempting to sing an unknown melody Curwen’s elementary

With the major scale and simple rhythmic notation mastered,

A working party set up at the University of London Institute of

J. Proudman: Musical Lectures and Sketches (London,

J. Proudman: Musical Jottings, Useful and Humorous

J.S. Curwen: Memorials of John Curwen (with T.E. Banks;

J.S. Curwen with J. Graham: The Tonic Sol-fa Jubilee: a

J. Taylor: ‘The Evolution of the Movable Doh’, PMA, 23

W.G. McNaught: ‘The Psychology of Sight-Singing’, PMA,

H.W. Shaw: ‘The Musical Teaching of John Curwen’, PRMA

B. Rainbow: The Land without Music: Musical Education

H. Simon: Song and Words: a History of the Curwen Press

B. Boon: Sing a Happy Song: a History of Salvation Army

B. Rainbow: John Curwen: a Short Critical Biography

P. Bennett: ‘Sarah Glover: a Forgotten Pioneer in Music

D. Russell: Popular Music in England, 1840–1914: a Social

D. Hyde: New-Found Voices: Women in Nineteenth-

S.E. Kaufman: ‘John Curwen and the Impact of Tonic Sol-

G. Olwage: ‘Scriptions of the Choral: the History of Black

C. Dale: Music Analysis in Britain in the Nineteenth and

G. Olwage: ‘Discipline and Choralism: the Birth of of

J. Southcott: ‘The First Tonic Sol-fa Missionary: Reverend

C.E. McGuire: ‘Music and Morality: John Curwen’s Tonic

G. Olwage: ‘John Knox Bowke, Colonial Composer: Tales of

S.E. Taylor: ‘Finding Themselves: Musical Revolutions in

C.E. McGuire: Music and Victorian Philanthropy: the Tonic

C.E. McGuire: ‘American Songs, Pastoral Nationalism and

C.E. McGuire: ‘Christianity, Civilization and Music:

P.R. Weliver: ‘Disciplining the Masses through Tonic Sol-

B. Zon: Evolution and Victorian Musical Culture