Bread of Heaven, on Thee We Feed in Tonic Solfa
Bread of Heaven, on Thee We Feed in Tonic Solfa to ARFON: the solfa with the words, staff notation, the two verses, and a piano.
The solfa with the words
| m,Bread-l,of-l,heav’nse,_fe,onm,_ | l,Thee-t,we-dfeed,--- |
| rFor-dThy-t,flesh-l,is- | dmeatt,_l,in-se,_l,deed:--- |
| mEv--merr_dmay-mour- | rsouls-dbe-t,fed--- |
| mWith-mthisr_dtrue-mand- | rliv--ding-dBread-t,_- |
| m,Day-l,by-l,dayse,_fe,withm,_ | l,strength-t,sup--dplied,--- |
| rThrough-dthe-t,life-l,of- | dHimt,_l,whose,_l,died.--- |
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- Key
- G minor
- Doh
- Bb
- Time
- 4/4
- Starts on
- m, (D)
- Range
- m, to m (D to D, an octave)
- Tune
- ARFON
- Words
- Josiah Conder
- Music
- Welsh Hymn Tune
Tune ARFON (Welsh Hymn Tune); words by Josiah Conder (1789–1855). Sources and licences.
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.
Doh is Bb · 4/4
Staff notation
The melody on the treble staff in G minor, with the first verse under the notes.
The staff is drawn here when you scroll to it.
The words
Bread of heaven, on Thee we feed,
For Thy flesh is meat indeed:
Ever may our souls be fed
With this true and living Bread;
Day by day with strength supplied,
Through the life of Him who died.
Vine of heaven, Thy blood supplies
This blest cup of sacrifice,
Lord, Thy wounds our healing give,
To Thy cross we look and live:
Jesus, may we ever be
Grafted, rooted, built in Thee.
How to sing it from the solfa
- Find doh first. Play or hum Bb 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 m, (D).
- Count the time. 4/4 means four 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 r m l t and the chromatic se fe. 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
Josiah Conder’s words were published in his collection The Star in the East in 1824; he wrote them in the first person (“on Thee I feed”), and hymn books later changed them to “we”. The tune ARFON is a Welsh folk melody, printed in Edward Jones’s Relicks of the Welsh Bards in 1784.
- Words (1824): Josiah Conder (1789–1855)
- Melody (1784): Welsh Hymn Tune
Tune ARFON (Welsh Hymn Tune); words by Josiah Conder (1789–1855).
Questions about Bread of Heaven, on Thee We Feed
What is the doh of Bread of Heaven, on Thee We Feed?
In this version, in G minor, doh is Bb. If your choir sings it in another key, doh moves to the new key note and every solfa syllable stays the same — that is what movable doh means.
What note does Bread of Heaven, on Thee We Feed start on?
It starts on m, (D in G minor). Find doh first, then sing up or down to m,.
Is Bread of Heaven, on Thee We Feed in the public domain?
Yes. Josiah Conder died in 1855; the words were first published in 1824 and the music in 1784. Everyone named died before 1955 and both were published before 1929, so the hymn is out of copyright in the UK, the EU, the United States and Nigeria. Modern arrangements and translations can still be under copyright.