How Happy, Gracious Lord! Are We in Tonic Solfa
How Happy, Gracious Lord! Are We in Tonic Solfa to MERIBAH, doh is Eb: the solfa with the words, staff notation, 4 verses and a piano.
The solfa with the words
| dHow--- | mhap---mpy,mgra--rcious-mLord!-fare- | swe-------mDi---- |
| lvine---llyldrawn-sto-ffol--mlow- | rthee,-------sWhose--- |
| thours-ldi--svid----feed--- | sare-------sBe---- |
| d'twixt-sthe-smount-mand-fmul--lti-- | stude;-------sOur--- |
| d'day-sis-sspent-min-fdo--ling- | sgood,-------dOur--- |
| rnight-fin-mpraise---rand--- | dprayer.------- |
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- Key
- Eb major
- Doh
- Eb
- Time
- 3/2
- Starts on
- d (E♭)
- Range
- d to d' (E♭ to E♭, an octave)
- Tune
- MERIBAH
- Words
- Charles Wesley
- Music
- Lowell Mason
Tune MERIBAH by Lowell Mason (1792–1872); words by Charles Wesley (1707–1788). 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 Eb · 3/2
Staff notation
The melody on the treble staff in Eb major, with the first verse under the notes.
The staff is drawn here when you scroll to it.
The words
How happy, gracious Lord! are we
Divinely drawn to follow thee,
Whose hours divided are
Betwixt the mount and multitude;
Our day is spent in doing good,
Our night in praise and prayer.
With us no melancholy void,
No period lingers unemployed,
Or unimproved, below;
Our weariness of life is gone,
Who live to serve our God alone,
And only thee to know.
The winter's night and summer's day
Glide imperceptibly away,
Too short to sing thy praise;
Too few we find the happy hours,
And haste to join those heavenly powers,
In everlasting lays.
With all who chant thy name on high?
And, "Holy, Holy, Holy," cry,
A bright harmonious throng,
We long thy praises to repeat,
And, restless, sing around thy seat
The new, eternal song.
How to sing it from the solfa
- Find doh first. Play or hum Eb 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 (E♭), on the word “How”, as a pickup before the first full bar.
- Count the time. 3/2 means three minim 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
Charles Wesley wrote these words. His brother John printed them in A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists (1780), hymn 222.
The book printed the words without tunes. They are in Common Particular Metre (8.8.6.8.8.6), and this page sets them to MERIBAH; any other Common Particular Metre tune fits them as well.
- Words: Charles Wesley (1707–1788)
- Music (1839): Lowell Mason (1792–1872)
Tune MERIBAH by Lowell Mason (1792–1872); words by Charles Wesley (1707–1788).
Sung to the same tune: At Early Dawn, with Pious Thought, Be It My Only Wisdom Here, Blinded in Youth by Satan's Arts, But We from Such Assaults Are Freed, Except the Lord Conduct the Plan, If Solid Happiness We Prize, Light of My Life, O Lord, Thou Art, Lord, Thou Hast Won, at Length I Yield, May We Thy Precepts, Lord, Fulfil, O God of Life, in Whom We Live, O Lord! How Happy Should We Be, O Love Divine, How Sweet Thou Art, O, Could We Speak the Matchless Worth, The Joyful Morn, My God, Is Come, Thou God of Glorious Majesty, When, Lord, to This Our Western Land.
Questions about How Happy, Gracious Lord! Are We
What is the doh of How Happy, Gracious Lord! Are We?
In this version, in Eb major, doh is Eb. 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 How Happy, Gracious Lord! Are We start on?
It starts on d (E♭ in Eb major), a pickup on the word “How” before the first full bar. Find doh first, then sing up or down to d.
Is How Happy, Gracious Lord! Are We in the public domain?
Yes. Charles Wesley died in 1788, Lowell Mason died in 1872; the words were in print by 1780 and the music in 1839. 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.