Jesus, the Friend of Man 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 Eb major, with the first verse under the notes.

The words

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 first syllable of “Jesus”, 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

These words were printed without an author's name in Hymns for Christian Devotion, compiled by John G. Adams and Edwin H. Chapin (Boston, 1846), as hymn 685 of its twenty-second edition (1853), “The Saviour Commemorated”, where the book credits them to the Paradise St. Collection.

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 FRANCONIA; any other Short Metre tune fits them as well.

• Words: Anonymous
• Music (1738): Johann Balthasar König (1691–1758)

Melody from the Open Hymnal Project (public domain), edited by Brian J. Dumont; tune FRANCONIA by Johann Balthasar König (1691–1758); words by Anonymous. 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: "No More, on Earth No More, Behold the Lofty Sky, Blest Are the Pure in Heart, Come, All Harmonious Tongues, Father, This Slumber Shake, Forever with the Lord, From Egypt Lately Freed, Glad Was My Heart to Hear, God, Who Is Just and Kind, How Sweet to Bless the Lord, How Swift the Torrent Rolls, Jesus Invites His Friends, Let Every Creature Join, My Father! Cheering Name, O! Know Ye Not That Ye, Our Heavenly Father Calls, Our Lord, Who Knows Full Well, Saviour, Thy Law We Love, Shall Wisdom Cry Aloud, The Lord on High Proclaims, The Year Begins with Thee, This Soul Reviving Wine, To God the Only Wise, Well, the Redeemer's Gone, Within the Father's House.