Father! We Look Up to Thee in Tonic Solfa
Father! We Look Up to Thee in Tonic Solfa to HEINLEIN, doh is F: the solfa with the words, staff notation, 5 verses and a piano.
The solfa with the words
| mFa--mther!-l,we-t,look- | dup-rto-mThee;--- |
| mLet-mus-sin-sThy- | felove-fea--mgree;--- |
| mThou,-mwho-fart-fthe- | rGod-rof-mpeace,--- |
| mBid-mcon--rten--dtion- | t,ev--t,er-l,cease.--- |
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- Key
- D minor
- Doh
- F
- Time
- 4/4
- Starts on
- m (A)
- Range
- l, to s (D to C, a seventh)
- Tune
- HEINLEIN
- Words
- Anonymous
- Music
- Martin Herbst, Nurnberg
Tune HEINLEIN by Martin Herbst (died undefined) and Nurnberg (died undefined); words by Anonymous. 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 D minor, with the first verse under the notes.
The staff is drawn here when you scroll to it.
The words
Father! we look up to Thee;
Let us in Thy love agree;
Thou, who art the God of peace,
Bid contention ever cease.
Make us of one heart and mind,
Self-forgetful, true and kind;
Strong, yet meek in thought and word,
Like Thy Son, our blessed Lord.
Let us for each other care,
Each the other's burden bear;
Ready, when reviled, to bless;
Studious of the law of peace.
Father! all our souls inspire,
Fill us with love's sacred fire;
Guided by that blessed light,
Order all our steps aright.
Free from anger, free from pride,
Let us thus in Thee abide;
All the depths of love express, —
All the heights of holiness.
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 m (A).
- 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
These words were printed without an author's name in the supplement of the 1866 edition of A Book of Hymns for Public and Private Devotion, compiled by Samuel Longfellow and Samuel Johnson (Boston, 1866), as hymn 539, “Christian Love”, where the book credits them to a Wesleyan source.
The book printed the words without tunes, marked Sevens (7.7.7.7), to be sung to any tune of that metre. This page sets them to HEINLEIN; any other Sevens tune fits them as well.
- Words: Anonymous
- Music, attributed (1676): Martin Herbst (died undefined)
- Music (1676): Nurnberg (died undefined)
Tune HEINLEIN by Martin Herbst (died undefined) and Nurnberg (died undefined); words by Anonymous.
Sung to the same tune: All Ye Nations, Praise the Lord, As the Sun's Enliv'ning Eye, Bless, O Lord, Each Opening Year, Child, Amidst the Flowers at Play, Clay to Clay, and Dust to Dust, Forty Days and Forty Nights, Gently Fall the Dews of Eve, Heavenly Father! to Whose Eye, High, in Yonder Realms of Light, Jesu, Shall I Never Be, Let Me Dwell on Golgotha, Light Is Dawning 'Mong the Hills, Lord! Subdue Our Selfish Will, Mighty One, Before Whose Face, Now the Shades of Night Are Gone, Praise, O Praise Our God and King, See, the World for Youth Prepares, Sin, When Viewed by Scripture Light, Soul! Celestial in Thy Birth, Thine Forever, God of Love, Thou Who Roll’st the Year Around, While I Lived Without the Lord.
Questions about Father! We Look Up to Thee
What is the doh of Father! We Look Up to Thee?
In this version, in D minor, 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! We Look Up to Thee start on?
It starts on m (A in D minor). Find doh first, then sing up or down to m.
Is Father! We Look Up to Thee in the public domain?
Yes. Martin Herbst died in undefined, Nurnberg died in undefined; the words were in print by 1866 and the music in 1676. 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.