Great Is the Lord Our God 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 F minor, with the first verse under the notes.

The words

How to sing it from the solfa

• Find doh first. Play or hum Ab 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 l, (F), 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. 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 for The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament (1719): Psalm 48, part 1, headed “The church is the honour and safety of a nation”.

Watts' psalms were printed without tunes and sung to any tune of their metre, Short Metre (6.6.8.6). This page sets the words to SOUTHWELL; any other Short Metre tune fits them as well.

• Words (1719): Isaac Watts (1674–1748)
• Melody (1579): From William Daman's Psalter, 1579

Melody from the Open Hymnal Project (public domain), edited by Brian J. Dumont; tune SOUTHWELL (From William Daman's Psalter, 1579); 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: Along My Earthly Way, And Must This Body Die, Arise, My Gracious God, At the Creation's Birth, Behold Th' Amazing Sight, Behold the Morning Sun, Behold the Sun, How Bright, Blest Are the Sons of Peace, Children of Light, Awake, Come to the House of Prayer, Come, Kingdom of Our God, Come, Ye Who Love the Lord, Destruction's Dangerous Road, Far as Thy Name Is Known, Father, in Whom We Live, Firm and Unmov'd Are They, From Early Dawning Light, Good Is the Heavenly King, Grace! 'Tis a Charming Sound, Here, in the Broken Bread, How Gentle God's Commands, How Honored Is the Place, In Darkness as in Light, It Is a Comely Thing, Jerusalem, Rejoice, Jesus, My Truth, My Way, Let All Our Tongues Be One, Let God the Father Live, Let Hearts and Tongues Unite, Lord Jesus Think on Me, Lord of the Harvest, Hear, My God, My Life, My Love, My God, Permit My Tongue, My Spirit on Thy Care, O Lord, How Vile Am I, O Spirit, Freed from Earth, O, Where Shall Rest Be Found, Our Heavenly Father, Hear, Religion Can Assuage, Stand Up and Bless the Lord, Sure There's a Righteous God, The God Jehovah Reigns, The Law by Moses Came, The Time Is Drawing Near, The Word of Christ, Our Lord, Thou Seest My Feebleness, To Christ Th' Anointed King, To Thee, O God in Heaven, We Give Thee but Thine Own.