Do Re Mi

Today is the day we sing Ut Queant Laxis ...

Ut queant laxis
resonare fibris
Mira gestorum
famuli tuorum,
Solve polluti
labi reatum,
Sancte Iohannes

The translation would be ...

So that your servants may, with loosened voices, resound the wonders of your deeds, clean the guilt from our stained lips, O Saint John.

It's the Feast of the Birth of St. John the Baptist today ... 6 months until the Birth of Jesus at Christmas.

Here is that same hymn with inflections highlighted ...

_Ut_ queant laxis
_re_sonare fibris
_Mi_ra gestorum
_fa_muli tuorum,
_Sol_ve polluti
_la_bi reatum,
_S_ancte _I_ohannes

The solfege ... what we know as Do Re Mi Fa ... has it's origins in this ancient hymn .... the inflections used to sing it. Over centuries, due to pronunciation changes, Ut became Do to illustrate that particular sound better.