Hark! Through the Waking Earth in Tonic Solfa
Hark! Through the Waking Earth in Tonic Solfa to QUAM DILECTA, doh is F: the solfa with the words, staff notation, 7 verses and a piano.
The solfa with the words
| mHark!- | fthrough-mthe-mwa--rking- | dearth,-----sHark!- |
| lthrough-mthe-re--dchoing- | rsky,-----rHer-- |
| mald-sof-sfree--ldom's- | sbirth,-----rThere- |
| mcomes-fa-mglo---rrious | dcry.----- |
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- Key
- F major
- Doh
- F
- Time
- 4/4
- Starts on
- m (A)
- Range
- d to l (F to D, a sixth)
- Tune
- QUAM DILECTA
- Words
- Anonymous
Tune QUAM DILECTA by Henry Lascelles Jenner (1820–1898); 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 F major, with the first verse under the notes.
The staff is drawn here when you scroll to it.
The words
Hark! through the waking earth,
Hark! through the echoing sky,
Herald of freedom's birth,
There comes a glorious cry.
The triple chains that bind
Fall from the weary limb,
And from the down-crushed mind,
As soundeth that high hymn.
Unto man's waiting heart
It saith, — "Arise, be strong!
Bear thou an earnest part
Against all forms of wrong.
"Wouldst live in earth as lives
The glorious One above?
He for thy model gives
Himself, and he is Love.
"Love in each brother man
The God who loveth him;
Revere the stamp of heaven,
However marred and dim.
"Bid fear give place to love;
Bid doubt and passion cease;
Be every word of hate
Forever hushed in peace."
Sound, sound through all the earth!
Sound through the echoing sky!
Proclaim the world's new birth;
Proclaim the Lord is nigh!
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), on the word “Hark”, 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. 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 A Book of Hymns for Public and Private Devotion, compiled by Samuel Longfellow and Samuel Johnson (Boston, 1848), as hymn 188, “Behold, He Cometh”.
The book printed the words without tunes, marked Sixes (6.6.6.6), to be sung to any tune of that metre. This page sets them to QUAM DILECTA; any other Sixes tune fits them as well.
- Words: Anonymous
- Music (1861): Henry Lascelles Jenner (1820–1898)
Tune QUAM DILECTA by Henry Lascelles Jenner (1820–1898); words by Anonymous.
Sung to the same tune: Because I Was Brought Low, Bring to the Christ Your Fears, Come, Mortals, Come Behold, Even as Thou Said'st, O Christ, Formed in Thine Image Bright, Gone Are the Shades of Night, Let All the World Abroad, The God Who Reigns Alone, The Saffron Tints Appear.
Questions about Hark! Through the Waking Earth
What is the doh of Hark! Through the Waking Earth?
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 Hark! Through the Waking Earth start on?
It starts on m (A in F major), a pickup on the word “Hark” before the first full bar. Find doh first, then sing up or down to m.
Is Hark! Through the Waking Earth in the public domain?
Yes. Henry Lascelles Jenner died in 1898; the words were in print by 1848 and the music in 1861. 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.