My God, My Father, While I Stray in Tonic Solfa
My God, My Father, While I Stray in Tonic Solfa to HANFORD (SULLIVAN), doh is Eb: the solfa with the words, staff notation, 8 verses and a piano.
The solfa with the words
| sMy---sGod,-smy- | sFa------sther,- |
| fwhile---mI--- | rstray------- |
| lFar---lfrom-lmy- | lhome,-----lon- |
| slife’s---frough--- | mway,-----d'O- |
| d'teach-----d'me- | d'from---tmy--- |
| lheart---sto--- | fsay,------- |
| m“Thy------- | fwill---rbe--- |
| ddone!”------- |
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- Key
- Eb major
- Doh
- Eb
- Time
- 4/4
- Starts on
- s (B♭)
- Range
- d to d' (E♭ to E♭, an octave)
- Tune
- HANFORD (SULLIVAN)
- Words
- Charlotte Elliott
Tune HANFORD (SULLIVAN) by Arthur Seymour Sullivan (1842–1900); words by Charlotte Elliott (1789–1871). 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 · 4/4
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
My God, my Father, while I stray
Far from my home, on life’s rough way,
O teach me from my heart to say,
“Thy will be done!”
Though dark my path and sad my lot,
Let me be still and murmur not.
Or breathe the prayer divinely taught,
“Thy will be done!”
What though in lonely grief I sigh
For friends beloved, no longer nigh,
Submissive still would I reply,
“Thy will be done!”
Though Thou hast called me to resign
What most I prized, it ne’er was mine;
I have but yielded what was Thine:
“Thy will be done!”
Should grief or sickness waste away
My life in premature decay,
My Father, still I strive to say,
“Thy will be done!”
Let but my fainting heart be blest
With Thy sweet Spirit for its Guest;
My God, to Thee I leave the rest:
“Thy will be done!”
Renew my will from day to day;
Blend it with Thine and take away
All that now makes it hard to say,
“Thy will be done!”
Then, when on earth I breathe no more,
The prayer, oft mixed with tears before,
I’ll sing upon a happier shore,
“Thy will be done!”
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 s (B♭).
- 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
Charlotte Elliott wrote these words. They were printed in the Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-Book (St. Louis, 1927), as hymn 386.
The book printed the words without tunes, marked 8.8.8.4, to be sung to any tune of that metre. This page sets them to HANFORD (SULLIVAN); any other 8.8.8.4 tune fits them as well.
- Words: Charlotte Elliott (1789–1871)
- Music (1874): Arthur Seymour Sullivan (1842–1900)
Tune HANFORD (SULLIVAN) by Arthur Seymour Sullivan (1842–1900); words by Charlotte Elliott (1789–1871).
Sung to the same tune: O Lord of Heaven and Earth and Sea.
Questions about My God, My Father, While I Stray
What is the doh of My God, My Father, While I Stray?
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 My God, My Father, While I Stray start on?
It starts on s (B♭ in Eb major). Find doh first, then sing up or down to s.
Is My God, My Father, While I Stray in the public domain?
Yes. Charlotte Elliott died in 1871, Arthur Seymour Sullivan died in 1900; the words were in print by 1927 and the music in 1874. 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.