Great God! the Heavens' Well Ordered Frame 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 d (C), on the word “Great”, 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 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

Isaac Watts wrote these words. They were printed in Hymns for Christian Devotion, compiled by John G. Adams and Edwin H. Chapin (Boston, 1846), as hymn 168 of its twenty-second edition (1853), “God revealed in his Works”.

The book printed the words without tunes, marked Long Metre, six lines (8.8.8.8.8.8), to be sung to any tune of that metre. This page sets them to MELITA; any other Long Metre, six lines tune fits them as well.

• Words: Isaac Watts (1674–1748)
• Music (1861): John Bacchus Dykes (1823–1876)

Melody from the Open Hymnal Project (public domain), edited by Brian J. Dumont; tune MELITA by John Bacchus Dykes (1823–1876); words by Isaac Watts (1674–1748). 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: As Every Day Thy Mercy Spares, Captain of Israel's Host, and Guide, Come, O Thou Prophet of the Lord, Comfort, Ye Ministers of Grace, Eternal Father, Strong to Save, Eternal Lord of Earth and Skies, Expand Thy Wings, Celestial Dove, Father of Jesus Christ the Just, Father of Mercies! God of Peace, Forgive Us for Thy Mercy's Sake, Forth from the Dark and Stormy Sky, Great God, This Sacred Day of Thine, He Sendeth Sun, He Sendeth Shower, How Precious Are Thy Thoughts of Peace, How Rich Thy Gifts, Almighty King, I Want the Spirit of Power Within, I'll Praise My Maker While I've Breath, I’ll Praise My Maker Whilst I’ve Breath, Jesus, the Gift Divine I Know, Jesus, with Kindest Pity See, Leader of Israel's Host, and Guide, Let All the Earth Their Voices Raise, Like Israel's Hosts to Exile Driven, Master, I Own Thy Lawful Claim, My Hope Is Built, O Father, — Draw Us After Thee, O Father! Lift Our Souls Above, O God of My Salvation, Hear, O God of Peace and Pardoning Love, O God, If Thou Art Love Indeed, O God, Thy Righteousness We Own, O Jesus, to Thy Servants Give, O Lord, My God, I Cry to Thee, O Love, How Cheering Is Thy Ray, O Love, Who Formedst Me to Wear, O, Draw Me, Father, After Thee, O, Still Trust on, If in the Heart, Ours Is a Lovely World, How Fair, Peace, Doubting Heart! My God's I Am, Saviour, to Thee We Humbly Cry, Spirit of Truth, Essential God, Sweet to the Soul the Parting Ray, The Bird That Soars on Highest Wing, The Lord My Pasture Shall Prepare, The People That in Darkness Lay, Thou Art, O God, the Life and Light, Thou Hidden Love of God, Whose Height, Thy Power and Saving Truth to Show, To Christ, the Son, the Father Spake, What Am I, O Thou Glorious God, When in the Clouds the Lord Appears, While Here as Wandering Sheep We Stray, With Grateful Hearts with Joyful Tongues, Within Thy Courts My Praise Shall Rise.