GERMAN WORD OF THE DAY: LARIFARI
Most definitely one of the nicest-sounding German words, Larifari stands for “senseless or meaningless chatter”.
As early as in 1856 the Brothers Grimm (of the Grimm fairy-tales collection) said about it:“ we must regard the word itself as devoid of meaning”. They were not far off.
Larifari was most likely born out of a string of apparently senseless syllables used to help memorise and practice melodies following the Arezzo method: La, re, fa stood for the notes a, d and f - the D minor triad.
Guido of Arezzo, Italian Benedictine monk, came up with this system, which by adding letters to individual notes helped singers or players member the tune. His method was widely spread in Germany and in other countries of central Europe. So much so that the author herself spent half of her childhood practising her do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-si-do without knowing she was practising solmisation.
Had she learnt her instrument with more gusto and with less Larifari-Attitude, she might be performing cello concerts worldwide today. As it is, she remained at the do-re-mi-sol-la-si-do level.