Father! There Is No Change to Live with Thee in Tonic Solfa
Father! There Is No Change to Live with Thee in Tonic Solfa to SONG TWENTY-TWO, doh is F: the solfa with the words, staff notation, 3 verses and a piano.
The solfa with the words
| sFa----sther!-mthere- | lis---sno--- |
| schange-fto-mlive-swith- | rThee;------- |
| rSave---mthat-din- | fChrist---rI--- |
| sgrow-dfrom-mday-rto- | dday;------- |
| mIn---feach-snew- | lword---lI--- |
| rhear,-seach-sthing-feI- | ssee,------- |
| t,I---dbut-rre-- | mjoic----fing--- |
| shas--lten-ron-rmy- | dway.------- |
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- Key
- F major
- Doh
- F
- Time
- 4/4
- Starts on
- s (C)
- Range
- t, to l (E to D, a seventh)
- Tune
- SONG TWENTY-TWO
- Words
- Jones Very
- Music
- Orlando Gibbons
Tune SONG TWENTY-TWO by Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625); words by Jones Very (1813–1880). 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 F · 4/4
Staff notation
The melody on the treble staff in F major, with the first verse under the notes.
The staff is drawn here when you scroll to it.
The words
Father! there is no change to live with Thee;
Save that in Christ I grow from day to day;
In each new word I hear, each thing I see,
I but rejoicing hasten on my way.
The morning comes, with blushes overspread,
And I, new-wakened, find a morn within;
And in its modest dawn around me shed,
Thou hear'st the prayer and the ascending hymn.
Hour follows hour, the lengthening shades descend;
Yet they could never reach as far as me.
Did not Thy love its kind protection lend,
That I, Thy child, might sleep in peace with Thee.
How to sing it from the solfa
- Find doh first. Play or hum F 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 (C).
- 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 f 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
Jones Very wrote these words. They were printed in A Book of Hymns for Public and Private Devotion, compiled by Samuel Longfellow and Samuel Johnson (Boston, 1848), as hymn 77, “God's Fatherly Care”.
The book printed the words without tunes, marked Tens (10.10.10.10), to be sung to any tune of that metre. This page sets them to SONG TWENTY-TWO; any other Tens tune fits them as well.
- Words: Jones Very (1813–1880)
- Music (1623): Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625)
Tune SONG TWENTY-TWO by Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625); words by Jones Very (1813–1880).
Sung to the same tune: Breathe Thoughts of Pity O'er a Brother's Fall, Cheer Up, My Soul, There Is a Mercy-seat, Glory to God! the Morn Appointed Breaks, God of the Changing Year, Whose Arm of Power, The Morning Breaks, I Place My Hand in Thine, Though Lonely Be Thy Path, Fear Not, for He.
Questions about Father! There Is No Change to Live with Thee
What is the doh of Father! There Is No Change to Live with Thee?
In this version, in F major, doh is F. 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 Father! There Is No Change to Live with Thee start on?
It starts on s (C in F major). Find doh first, then sing up or down to s.
Is Father! There Is No Change to Live with Thee in the public domain?
Yes. Jones Very died in 1880, Orlando Gibbons died in 1625; the words were in print by 1848 and the music in 1623. 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.