sb. Mus. [L. ut ‘that’: see note on GAMUT. Cf. F., Sp., Pg., and It. ut.] The first note in Guido’s hexachords, and of the octave in modern solmization, now commonly DO sb.2; the note C in the natural scale of C major.
Cf. also EFFAUT, GAMUT, G-SOL-RE-UT.
c. 1325. in Rel. Ant., I. 292. Sol and ut and la.
c. 1550. Armonye of Byrdes, 185, in Hazl., E. P. P., III. 194. Chaungyng their key From ut to rey.
1596[?]. Bathe, Brief Introd., A v b. The next thing necessary to be knowne for the right naming of notes, is the place where that note standeth which is named Ut.
1645–. [see MI].
c. 1656. Lovelace, To T. S., iv. Poems (1904), 172. But yet the Spoaks by which they scal’d so high, Gamble hath wisely laid of Ut Re Mi.
1754–. [see DO sb.2].
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XII. 547/2. From the adjuncts of the mode, that is to say, the modes of its two fifths, which for ut are fa and sol.
1801. Busby, Dict. Mus., s.v., Ut and do are always the tonic, or key-note, of the major-mode, and the … third of the minor mode.
1890. [see FA].
b. Ut, re, etc.: the notes of the gamut; also transf., the ‘gamut’ or elements of something.
1589. Shaks., L. L. L., IV. ii. 102. Olde Mantuan, Who vnderstandeth thee not loues thee not, vt re sol la mi fa.
1599. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Rev., II. i. Your courtier elementary, is … as it were in the alphabet, or ut-re-mi-fa-sol-la of courtship.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Note, Of the seven musical Notes, ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, the first six are ascribed to Aretine.
