It Is the Hour of Prayer in Tonic Solfa
It Is the Hour of Prayer in Tonic Solfa to DIADEMATA, doh is D: the solfa with the words, staff notation, 3 verses and a piano.
The solfa with the words
| dIt-disdthemhour-mof- | lprayer:-----lDraw- |
| snear-dand-fbend-mthe- | rknee,-----rAnd- |
| mfill-sthe-lcalm-sand- | feho--mlyr_sair-d'With- |
| tvoice-d'of-lmel--lo-- | sdy!-----sO'er-- |
| swea--mried-rwith-dthe- | lheat-----lAnd- |
| lbur--feden-mof-rthe- | tday,-----tNow- |
| d'let--tuslrest-sour- | fwan--rdering-mfeet,-sAnd- |
| fga--mther-rhere-rto- | dpray.------- |
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- Key
- D major
- Doh
- D
- Time
- 4/4
- Starts on
- d (D)
- Range
- d to d' (D to D, an octave)
- Tune
- DIADEMATA
- Words
- Anonymous
- Music
- George Job Elvey
Tune DIADEMATA by George Job Elvey (1816–1893); 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 D · 4/4
Staff notation
The melody on the treble staff in D major, with the first verse under the notes.
The staff is drawn here when you scroll to it.
The words
It is the hour of prayer:
Draw near and bend the knee,
And fill the calm and holy air
With voice of melody!
O'erwearied with the heat
And burden of the day,
Now let us rest our wandering feet,
And gather here to pray.
The dark and deadly blight
That walks at noontide hour,
The midnight arrow's secret flight,
O'er us have had no power:
But smiles from loving eyes
Have been around our way,
And lips on which a blessing lies
Have bidden us to pray.
O, blessed is the hour
That lifts our hearts on high!
Like sunlight when the tempests lower,
Prayer to the soul is nigh;
Though dark may be our lot,
Our eyes be dim with care,
These saddening thoughts shall trouble not
This holy hour of prayer.
How to sing it from the solfa
- Find doh first. Play or hum D 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 (D).
- 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
These words were printed without an author's name in the supplement of the 1866 edition of A Book of Hymns for Public and Private Devotion, compiled by Samuel Longfellow and Samuel Johnson (Boston, 1866), as hymn 506, “The Hour of Prayer”.
The book printed the words without tunes, marked Short Metre Double (6.6.8.6.6.6.8.6), to be sung to any tune of that metre. This page sets them to DIADEMATA; any other Short Metre Double tune fits them as well.
- Words: Anonymous
- Melody (1868): George Job Elvey (1816–1893)
Tune DIADEMATA by George Job Elvey (1816–1893); words by Anonymous.
Sung to the same tune: Ah Whither Should I Go, Ah, When Shall I Awake, And Am I Born to Die, Crown Him with Many Crowns, Equip Me for the War, Father of Boundless Grace, Gracious Redeemer, Shake, Great Source of Life and Light, Hark! Hark! with Harps of Gold, I Want a Sober Mind, I Was a Wandering Sheep, I Will Not Yield My Sword, In Fellowship, Alone, Jesu, We Look to Thee, Jesus, My Strength, My Hope, Lord, When at Thy Command, My God, My Strength, My Hope, My Sin Was Very Great, O God, in Mercy Hear, O That I Could Repent, O Thou Who Wouldst Not Have, O Unexhausted Grace, Soldiers of Christ, Arise, Sow in the Morn Thy Seed, Sweet Is the Time of Spring, The Thing My God Doth Hate, We Mourn for Those Who Toil.
Questions about It Is the Hour of Prayer
What is the doh of It Is the Hour of Prayer?
In this version, in D major, doh is D. 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 It Is the Hour of Prayer start on?
It starts on d (D in D major). Find doh first, then sing up or down to d.
Is It Is the Hour of Prayer in the public domain?
Yes. George Job Elvey died in 1893; the words were in print by 1866 and the music in 1868. 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.