O Darkest Night That Ever Fell in Tonic Solfa
O Darkest Night That Ever Fell in Tonic Solfa to ST ANNE, doh is C: the solfa with the words, staff notation, 6 verses and a piano.
The solfa with the words
| sO- | mdark--lest-snight-d'that- | d'ev--ter-d'fell!-sBe-- |
| d'fore-sthe-lsun-fehad- | sset,-----tThe- |
| d'light-lwas-r'blot--tted- | d'from-lthe-theavens,-sAnd- |
| ldeath,-d'and-r'dark--tness- | d'met.----- |
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- Key
- C major
- Doh
- C
- Time
- 4/4
- Starts on
- s (G)
- Range
- m to r' (E to D, a seventh)
- Tune
- ST ANNE
- Words
- Traditional Greek, John Brownlie
- Music
- William Croft
Tune ST ANNE by William Croft (1678–1727); words by Traditional Greek; translated by John Brownlie (1857–1925). 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 C · 4/4
Staff notation
The melody on the treble staff in C major, with the first verse under the notes.
The staff is drawn here when you scroll to it.
The words
O darkest night that ever fell!
Before the sun had set,
The light was blotted from the heavens,
And death, and darkness met.
For God had turned His face away
From all the sin He bore,
Whom in His love to earth He sent,
To bear our suffering sore.
Ah! darkest night that ever falls
On soul of human race,
When God in anger turns away
The brightness of His face;
Then, sun and moon, and stars are lost,
Amid' our hopeless night;
And all the radiant bliss of life
Is curtained from our sight.
O Christ, Thou art our Light, and Sun,
Our Hope 'mid guilty fears;
No night surrounds Thy presence now,
Nor threatening cloud appears;
And sin and death no longer reign,
Nor day to dark declines,
For, from the Father's face, a light
Of reconcilement shines.
How to sing it from the solfa
- Find doh first. Play or hum C 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 (G), on the word “O”, 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 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
John Brownlie translated these words from the Greek service books for Hymns from the Morningland (Paisley, 1911).
The book printed the words without tunes. They are in Common Metre (8.6.8.6), and this page sets them to ST ANNE; any other Common Metre tune fits them as well.
- Words: Traditional Greek
- Translated (1911): John Brownlie (1857–1925)
- Melody (1708): William Croft (1678–1727)
Tune ST ANNE by William Croft (1678–1727); words by Traditional Greek; translated by John Brownlie (1857–1925).
Sung to the same tune: A Shelter from the Rain or Wind, According to Thy Gracious Word, All Nature Feels Attractive Power, All That I Was, My Sin, My Guilt, Almighty God Your Word Is Cast, Among the Princes, Earthly Gods, As, Bowed by Sudden Storms, the Rose, Behold the Glories of the Lamb, Beneath Thy Trees To-day We Met, Breathe from the Gentle South, O Lord, By the Poor Widow's Oil and Meal, Calm on the Bosom of Thy God, Dear as Thou Wast, and Justly Dear, Death Cannot Make Our Souls Afraid, Death! 'Tis a Melancholy Day, Early, My God, Without Delay, Ensnared, Too Long, My Heart Has Been, Faith Is the Brightest Evidence, Father and God of All Mankind, Father of All, Whose Cares Extend, Father of Light! Conduct Our Feet, Father, I Long, I Faint to See, Father, into Thy Hands Alone, Fools in Their Hearts Believe and Say, Gentiles by Nature We Belong, God of Our Fathers! by Whose Hand, God of Our Lives, Thy Various Praise, God, in the High and Holy Place, God's Perfect Law Converts the Soul, Happy the Heart Where Graces Reign, Happy the Man to Whom His God, Hark! from the Tombs a Doleful Sound, Hear What the Voice from Heaven Proclaims, Help Us to Help Each Other, Lord, Here in Thy Temple, Lord, We Meet, High as the Heavens Above the Ground, How Can I Sink with Such a Prop, How Did My Heart Rejoice to Hear, I Lift My Hands, and with My Heart, In Evil Long I Took Delight, Is There Ambition in My Heart, Jesus, Who Bought Us with His Blood, Joy to the Earth! the Prince of Peace, Let Us Adore the Grace That Seeks, Lord at Thy Temple We Appear, Lord, How Divine Thy Comforts Are, Lord, How Secure My Conscience Was, Lord, If Thine Eyes Survey Our Faults, Lord, in the Morning Thou Shalt Hear, Lord, Send Thy Word, and Let It Run, Lord, When We Bend Before Thy Throne, Mere Human Power Shall Fast Decay, My God, the Spring of All My Joys, My Shepherd Will Supply My Need, Now Be the God of Israel Bless'd, Now I'm Convinc'd the Lord Is Kind, Now Satan Comes with Dreadful Roar, Now, Lord, the Heavenly Seed Is Sown, O Christ, Who Art Ascended Now, O God, Our Help in Ages Past, O God! We Praise Thee, and Confess, O Happy Is the Man, Who Hears, O Happy They Who Know the Lord, O the Delights, the Heavenly Joys, O Thou Whose Grace and Justice Reign, Plung'd in a Gulph of Dark Despair, Shine on Our Souls, Eternal God, Soon as I Heard My Father Say, Stoop Down, My Thoughts, That Use to Rise, Strait Is the Way, the Door Is Strait, That Might of Faith, O Lord! Bestow, The Dove, Let Loose in Eastern Skies, The Glories of My Maker God, The Heaven of Heavens Cannot Contain, The Long-lost Son, with Streaming Eyes, The Lord Our God Is Full of Might, The Lord, the Judge, Before His Throne, The Moon Has but a Borrowed Light, The Moon in Silver Glory Shone, The Ocean Looketh Up to Heaven, This Is the Feast of Heav'nly Wine, To Meditate Thy Precepts, Lord, To Thee, My God, My Days Are Known, Try Us, O God, and Search the Ground, Vain Are the Hopes That Rebels Place, Vain Are the Hopes the Sons of Men, We Sing Th’ Almighty Power of God, What Is Our Calling's Glorious Hope, When a Black Overspreading Cloud, When Fainting in the Sultry Waste, When Floating on Life's Troubled Sea, When Grief and Anguish Press Me Down, When I with Pleasing Wonder Stand, Where Shall the Child of Sorrow Find, Why Did the Nations Join to Slay, Why Doth the Lord Stand Off So Far, Within Thy House, O Lord, Our God.
Questions about O Darkest Night That Ever Fell
What is the doh of O Darkest Night That Ever Fell?
In this version, in C major, doh is C. 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 O Darkest Night That Ever Fell start on?
It starts on s (G in C major), a pickup on the word “O” before the first full bar. Find doh first, then sing up or down to s.
Is O Darkest Night That Ever Fell in the public domain?
Yes. John Brownlie died in 1925, William Croft died in 1727; the words were in print by 1911 and the music in 1708. 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.