I Love Thy Church, O 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).
• 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

Timothy Dwight wrote these words. They were printed in Hymns for Christian Devotion, compiled by John G. Adams and Edwin H. Chapin (Boston, 1846), as hymn 657 of its twenty-second edition (1853), “Attachment to the Church”.

The book printed the words without tunes, marked Short Metre (6.6.8.6), to be sung to any tune of that metre. This page sets them to AYLESBURY; any other Short Metre tune fits them as well.

• Words: Timothy Dwight (1752–1817)
• Melody (1718): From John Chetham's Psalmody, 1718

Melody from the Open Hymnal Project (public domain), edited by Brian J. Dumont; tune AYLESBURY (From John Chetham's Psalmody, 1718); words by Timothy Dwight (1752–1817). 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: "Blest Are the Meek," He Said, "Is This a Fast for Me?", And Will the God of Grace, Behold, the Grace Appears, Beside the Gospel Pool, Breathe on Me, Breath of God, Come at the Morning Hour, Come, Holy Ghost, in Might, Commit Thou All Thy Griefs, Far from These Scenes of Night, Father, I Will Not Pray, Great God, at Thy Command, How Heavy Is the Night, How Sweet the Melting Lay, I Hear the Voice of Woe, I Love Thy Zion, Lord, I Would, but Cannot Sing, Jesus Invites His Saints, Lord Jesus, Come! for Here, Lord, in the Strength of Grace, Mine Eyes and My Desire, My Former Hopes Are Dead, Now Is the Day of Grace, O Bless the Lord, My Soul, O Lord! Through Thee We Own, O the Almighty Lord, O, for the Death of Those, See What a Living-stone, Shall We Go on to Sin, Sing to the Lord Aloud, That Blessed Law of Thine, The Best That Heaven Could Bring, The Hours of Evening Close, The Lord My Shepherd Is, The Savior Kindly Calls, Thou One Begotten Son, Thy Name, Almighty Lord, Thy Word Invites Us Nigh, Tossed on the Sea of Life, We Lift Our Hearts to Thee, Welcome, Sweet Day of Rest, When Overwhelmed with Grief, When Shall Thy Love Constrain.