Breathe from the Gentle South, O Lord 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 “Breathe”, as a pickup before the first full bar.
• 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 s l t and the chromatic 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

William Cowper wrote these words. They were printed in Olney Hymns (London, 1779), Book III, hymn 10, “The waiting soul”.

The book printed the words without tunes, marked Common Metre (8.6.8.6), to be sung to any tune of that metre. This page sets them to ST ANNE; any other Common Metre tune fits them as well.

• Words: William Cowper (1731–1800)
• Melody (1708): William Croft (1678–1727)

Tune ST ANNE by William Croft (1678–1727); words by William Cowper (1731–1800).

Sung to the same tune: A Shelter from the Rain or Wind, According to Thy Gracious Word, All Nature Feels Attractive Power, All That I Was, My Sin, My Guilt, Almighty God Your Word Is Cast, Among the Princes, Earthly Gods, As, Bowed by Sudden Storms, the Rose, Behold the Glories of the Lamb, Beneath Thy Trees To-day We Met, By the Poor Widow's Oil and Meal, Calm on the Bosom of Thy God, Dear as Thou Wast, and Justly Dear, Death Cannot Make Our Souls Afraid, Death! 'Tis a Melancholy Day, Early, My God, Without Delay, Ensnared, Too Long, My Heart Has Been, Faith Is the Brightest Evidence, Father and God of All Mankind, Father of All, Whose Cares Extend, Father of Light! Conduct Our Feet, Father, I Long, I Faint to See, Father, into Thy Hands Alone, Fools in Their Hearts Believe and Say, Gentiles by Nature We Belong, God of Our Fathers! by Whose Hand, God of Our Lives, Thy Various Praise, God, in the High and Holy Place, God's Perfect Law Converts the Soul, Happy the Heart Where Graces Reign, Happy the Man to Whom His God, Hark! from the Tombs a Doleful Sound, Hear What the Voice from Heaven Proclaims, Help Us to Help Each Other, Lord, Here in Thy Temple, Lord, We Meet, High as the Heavens Above the Ground, How Can I Sink with Such a Prop, How Did My Heart Rejoice to Hear, I Lift My Hands, and with My Heart, In Evil Long I Took Delight, Is There Ambition in My Heart, Jesus, Who Bought Us with His Blood, Joy to the Earth! the Prince of Peace, Let Us Adore the Grace That Seeks, Lord at Thy Temple We Appear, Lord, How Divine Thy Comforts Are, Lord, How Secure My Conscience Was, Lord, If Thine Eyes Survey Our Faults, Lord, in the Morning Thou Shalt Hear, Lord, Send Thy Word, and Let It Run, Lord, When We Bend Before Thy Throne, Mere Human Power Shall Fast Decay, My God, the Spring of All My Joys, My Shepherd Will Supply My Need, Now Be the God of Israel Bless'd, Now I'm Convinc'd the Lord Is Kind, Now Satan Comes with Dreadful Roar, Now, Lord, the Heavenly Seed Is Sown, O Christ, Who Art Ascended Now, O Darkest Night That Ever Fell, O God, Our Help in Ages Past, O God! We Praise Thee, and Confess, O Happy Is the Man, Who Hears, O Happy They Who Know the Lord, O the Delights, the Heavenly Joys, O Thou Whose Grace and Justice Reign, Plung'd in a Gulph of Dark Despair, Shine on Our Souls, Eternal God, Soon as I Heard My Father Say, Stoop Down, My Thoughts, That Use to Rise, Strait Is the Way, the Door Is Strait, That Might of Faith, O Lord! Bestow, The Dove, Let Loose in Eastern Skies, The Glories of My Maker God, The Heaven of Heavens Cannot Contain, The Long-lost Son, with Streaming Eyes, The Lord Our God Is Full of Might, The Lord, the Judge, Before His Throne, The Moon Has but a Borrowed Light, The Moon in Silver Glory Shone, The Ocean Looketh Up to Heaven, This Is the Feast of Heav'nly Wine, To Meditate Thy Precepts, Lord, To Thee, My God, My Days Are Known, Try Us, O God, and Search the Ground, Vain Are the Hopes That Rebels Place, Vain Are the Hopes the Sons of Men, We Sing Th’ Almighty Power of God, What Is Our Calling's Glorious Hope, When a Black Overspreading Cloud, When Fainting in the Sultry Waste, When Floating on Life's Troubled Sea, When Grief and Anguish Press Me Down, When I with Pleasing Wonder Stand, Where Shall the Child of Sorrow Find, Why Did the Nations Join to Slay, Why Doth the Lord Stand Off So Far, Within Thy House, O Lord, Our God.