Today I arrived on Guido. Of course, he will be a character in my book. His influence on ALL music, but especially chant was transformative!! It changed everything. He is the creator of the original staff AND solfège. Not exactly the solfège we learned from Maria BUT did you hear Julie Andrews is writing a book about him? What curious timing! Almost like we coordinated, did we? 😉

I do enjoy that she depicts him singing happily through the hills. The Guido D’ Arezzo I read about sounded a bit different. I found him to be downright sassy, also a rebel, he was forced to leave several monasteries for his progressive thinking, before he landed in Arezzo. Anyway, I love a good sassy rebel and when you are that kind of genius, I believe you have earned the right. Therefore, I decided his character should be one of his Neumes.

If you would like to learn more about him, here are some decent websites. https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-famous-people/musical-monk-guido-arezzo-and-his-impact-history-music-006415

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Guido-dArezzo-Italian-musician

Also if you want to go deeper, I have enjoyed the book, Forever I will sing: A short history of Catholic sacred music – Aurelio Porfiri. Happy reading ☺️