Sun of My Soul, Thou Saviour Dear in Tonic Solfa
Sun of My Soul, Thou Saviour Dear in Tonic Solfa to HURSLEY: the solfa with the words, staff notation, the six verses, and a piano.
The solfa with the words
| dSun-dof-dmy- | dsoul-t,_-dThou- | rSa--m_-rviour- | ddear,----- |
| mIt-mis-mnot- | mnight-r_-mif- | sThou-f_-mbe- | rnear:----- |
| rOh,-rmay-mno- | fearth----rborn- | mcloud---fa-- | srise----- |
| lTo-lhide-lThee- | sfrom---mThy- | fser--m_-rvant’s- | deyes!----- |
Got your choir's recording? Get it in solfa →
Download the solfa (PDF)A4, free to print and share with your choir
- Key
- F major
- Doh
- F
- Time
- 3/4
- Starts on
- d (F)
- Range
- t, to l (E to D, a seventh)
- Tune
- HURSLEY
- Words
- John Keble
- Music
- Franz Joseph Haydn (ascribed), Katholisches Gesangbuch, Vienna
Tune HURSLEY by Franz Joseph Haydn (ascribed) (1732–1809); words by John Keble (1792–1866). 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 F · 3/4
Staff notation
The melody on the treble staff in F major, with the first verse under the notes.
The staff is drawn here when you scroll to it.
The words
Sun of my soul! Thou Saviour dear,
It is not night if Thou be near:
Oh, may no earth-born cloud arise
To hide Thee from Thy servant’s eyes!
When the soft dews of kindly sleep
My wearied eyelids gently steep,
Be my last thought, how sweet to rest
For ever on my Saviour’s breast.
Abide with me from morn till eve,
For without Thee I cannot live:
Abide with me when night is nigh,
For without Thee I dare not die.
If some poor wandering child of Thine
Have spurned to-day the voice divine,
Now, Lord, the gracious work begin;
Let him no more lie down in sin.
Watch by the sick: enrich the poor
With blessings from Thy boundless store:
Be every mourner’s sleep to-night,
Like infants’ slumbers, pure and light.
Come near and bless us when we wake,
Ere through the world our way we take;
Till in the ocean of Thy love
We lose ourselves, in Heaven above.
How to sing it from the solfa
- Find doh first. Play or hum F 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 (F).
- Count the time. 3/4 means three 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
John Keble wrote these verses in 1820 as part of his evening poem beginning “’Tis gone, that bright and orbèd blaze”, first published in The Christian Year in 1827. The tune HURSLEY comes from a Katholisches Gesangbuch (Vienna, 1774).
- Words (1820): John Keble (1792–1866)
- Music: Franz Joseph Haydn (ascribed) (1732–1809)
- Melody (1774): Katholisches Gesangbuch, Vienna
Tune HURSLEY by Franz Joseph Haydn (ascribed) (1732–1809); words by John Keble (1792–1866).
Questions about Sun of My Soul, Thou Saviour Dear
What is the doh of Sun of My Soul, Thou Saviour Dear?
In this version, in F major, doh is F. 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 Sun of My Soul, Thou Saviour Dear start on?
It starts on d (F in F major). Find doh first, then sing up or down to d.
Is Sun of My Soul, Thou Saviour Dear in the public domain?
Yes. John Keble died in 1866, Franz Joseph Haydn (ascribed) died in 1809; the words were first published in 1827 and the music in 1774. 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.