Pythagorean Solfeggio Scale

By Richard Merrick

In my book I discuss the scale relative to Guido of Arezzo, who rediscovered it from Pythagorean tuning treatises. However, there are several points that people do not know that they need to understand relative to its use.

The Good News: It is definitely related to Earth’s Schumann resonance frequency and, in fact, to the geometrical structure of the entire solar system. However, it is not exact. It differs as a function of the difference between Pi=3.14159… and 3. I will explain and support this in an upcoming article.

The Bad News: The Solfeggio scale typically references only 6 tones, leaving out Guido’s 7th tone. The reason for this, I believe, is Guido modified the original correct Pythagorean scale to hide the tense tritone. By doing this, he was the first to formally propose a system of sacred music that suppressed harmonic tension and oscillation that was ultimately banned by Church canon law. This scale became the poster child for the Church’s effort to control harmonic natural philosophy as part of their centuries-long anti-pagan crusade, leading to enforcement of many other anti-harmonic and unnatural policies in Western civilization.

Conclusion: The Solfeggio scale does indeed relate to natural frequencies and, as such, carry a potential healing effect. This said, the Solfeggio scale was a modification of the Greek scale designed to hide the symmetry and natural tension in musical harmonies, thus founding the asymmetrical and unsustainable philosophy at the heart of Western culture. It’s fine to use the six tones of the scale, but realize the entire 7-tone diatonic scale as used by the Church was altered to avoid harmonic tension and thus natural balance.