Harmony and Solfeggio - the St Petersburg School System

For anyone interested in studying at the St Petersburg Conservatory, it helps to know the solfeggio system used here beforehand. In my audition, the judging panel gave me ear-training quizes and my problem was not only being unable to identify chords that were played to me - but how to describe them!

Firstly, they played a chord and I had to guess what it was - without being given a 'starting note' or anything to relate to - testing to see if I have perfect pitch. Fail! Then they gave me the answer, then played another chord - it was A minor, but Russians don't call it that!

I wish I had prepared better for the audition by being familiar with their solfeggio system. Oh well, in the end they managed to let me in to the course only on the condition that I rapidly improve my aural skills. Luckily, a conductor from the Mariinsky Theatre, who also studied the Petersburg Con, kindly explained it all to me before I commenced my studies! 

PITCH/LETTER NOTATION
We use the fixed-Do system. Here is a C Major scale with 1) the Latin letter name 2) Russian pronunciation 3) In cyrillic

C
Do
До

D
Re
Ре

E
Mi
Ми

F
Fa
Фа

G
Sol' *(Note: there is a soft letter L at the end - in Russian this word also means 'salt')
Соль

A
Lya
Ля

B
Si* (Note: not Ti, like in the Sound of Music)
Си

ACCIDENTALS
Russian pronunciation guide - stress on words are indicated in bold

Sharp
diez
диез

Natural
bekar
бекар

Flat
bemol'
бемоль

Double Sharp
dubl-diez
дубль-диез

Double Flat
dubl-bemol'
дубль-бемоль

TONALITIES AND KEYS
The confusing part is that when naming keys for instance, we write in German. So here I've added a 4th line - how it's written.

Major
mazhor
мажор
dur

Minor
minor
минор
moll

For instance, for the key of C Sharp Major, you would write: Cis-dur (note: UPPER case letter names for Major keys) but say Do-diez mazhor (До-диез мажор).

E flat minor for example would be written: es-moll (note: with lower case letter names for minor keys), but pronounced Mi-bemol' minor (ми-бемоль минор)




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