Mus. Obs. [A, one of the notes of the gamut + re, the second note of each hexachord.] In Guido Aretino’s arrangement of the musical scale, the name of the note A in those hexachords (the 1st, 4th and 7th), in which it coincided with the second lowest note, sung to the syllable re. In the collective gamut, A re was, distinctively, A of the first hexachord (i.e., the note A on the lowest or first space of the modern bass staff), the lowest note but one of Guido’s whole scale; A of the octave, which was la of the 2nd hexachord, and mi of the 3rd, as well as re of the 4th, being distinguished as A la-mi-re. (See Grove, Dict. Mus., I. 734.) Cf. GAMUT.
c. 1450. Burlesque, in Rel. Ant., I. 83. Every clarke … seythe that are gothe befor bemy.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., III. i. 74. Are to plead Hortensio’s passion.
1705. T. Salmon, in Phil. Trans., XXV. 2080. An Octave, from Are to Alamire.
1760. [See ALAMIRE].
