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Guido of Arrezzo

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Religious Figure

The Resume

    (circa 991-circa 1050)
    Benedictine monk and music theorist
    Created the modern musical staff
    Developed the 'do-re-mi' system of assigning syllables to the notes of the musical scale
    Wrote 'Micrologus de Disciplina Artis Musicae' ('A Short Treatise on the Discipline of Musical Art,' ca. 1025)

Why he might be annoying:

    Little is known about his life.
    When singers resisted his innovations, he called them 'the most stupid men of our times.'
    He had to leave the monastery after the other monks became jealous.
    His scale originally started with 'ut' as the first note. (Just imagine Rogers and Hammerstein turning 'Ut-Re-Mi' into a show-stopping number.)

Why he might not be annoying:

    His system of notations made it so melodies no longer needed to be learned by rote.
    He reduced the time needed to train an ecclesiastical singer from ten years to one.
    His innovations were so pervasive that a 20th-century musicologist noted, 'We are still in the age of Guido.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 12 Votes: 41.67% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 5 Votes: 20.0% Annoying