A Charge to Keep I Have in Tonic Solfa

The solfa line by line

The same solfa as plain text, a line of the hymn at a time, with the words of the first verse under it — easy to copy into your own notes or a message to the choir. To print it, download the solfa as a PDF.

Staff notation

The melody on the treble staff in C major, with the first verse under the notes.

The words

How to sing it from the solfa

• Find doh first. Play or hum C and sing d r m f s up from it, so the whole choir has the key in their ears before you start.
• Pitch the first note. The tune starts on s (G), on the word “A”, as a pickup before the first full bar.
• Count the time. 3/4 means three crotchet beats in each bar. In the grid every cell is half a crotchet: a dash (–) holds the note before it, and _ is a rest.
• Know the notes. The tune uses d m f s l t. A comma after a note (s,) is the octave below; an apostrophe (d') is the octave above.

New to solfa? Read how to read Tonic Solfa and how to find the doh of a song.

About the hymn

Charles Wesley’s words were published in 1762. Lowell Mason wrote the tune BOYLSTON in 1832.

• Words (1762): Charles Wesley (1707–1788)
• Music (1832): Lowell Mason (1792–1872)

Melody from the Open Hymnal Project (public domain), edited by Brian J. Dumont; tune BOYLSTON by Lowell Mason (1792–1872); words by Charles Wesley (1707–1788). The Open Hymnal Project publishes this tune as public domain; NoteFusion's engine wrote the solfa from its notes. The melody has not yet been checked against a printed hymn book.

Sung to the same tune: 'Tis God the Spirit Leads, And Is There, Lord, a Rest, And Will the Judge Descend, Behold the Throne of Grace, Blest Be the Tie That Binds (Boylston), Come to the Land of Peace, Come, Holy Spirit, Come, Come, Ye That Love the Lord, God of Eternal Love, God of the Prophets' Power, Hail to the Sabbath Day, How Beauteous Are Their Feet, How Pleasing, Lord! to See, Hush the Loud Cannon's Roar, I Lift My Soul to God, In God's Eternity, Is This the Kind Return, Let Every Ear Attend, Not All the Blood of Beasts, Not in the Name of Pride, Not What These Hands Have Done, Now at This Evening Hour, O Come and Dwell in Me, O God, My Strength, My Hope, O Lord, Thy Perfect Word, O, Cease, My Wandering Soul, Out of the Depths of Woe, Stand, Soldier of the Cross, The Day Is Past and Gone, The Lord Declares His Will, The Savior Hides His Face, Thou Must Be Born Again, To Him Who Children Blest, To Keep the Lamp Alive, When on the Cruel Cross, When Overwhelm'd with Grief, When Thou Shalt Come, O Lord, Where Is Thy Sting, O Death, Ye Sons of Earth, Arise.