The Heavens, O Lord! Thy Power Proclaim 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 Ab major, with the first verse under the notes.

The words

How to sing it from the solfa

• Find doh first. Play or hum Ab 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 (E♭), on the word “The”, as a pickup before the first full bar.
• Count the time. 3/2 means three minim 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

John Bowring wrote these words. They were printed in Hymns for Christian Devotion, compiled by John G. Adams and Edwin H. Chapin (Boston, 1846), as hymn 178 of its twenty-second edition (1853), “"Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge."”.

The book printed the words without tunes, marked Long Metre, six lines (8.8.8.8.8.8), to be sung to any tune of that metre. This page sets them to SELENA; any other Long Metre, six lines tune fits them as well.

• Words: John Bowring (1792–1872)
• Music (1850): Isaac B. Woodbury (1819–1858)

Tune SELENA by Isaac B. Woodbury (1819–1858); words by John Bowring (1792–1872).

Sung to the same tune: Above, Below, Where'er I Gaze, Afflicted by a Gracious God, All Things Are Possible to Him, Around Bethesda's Healing Wave, Behold the Servant of the Lord, Blest Who with Generous Pity Glows, Captain of Our Salvation, Take, Come, O Thou Universal Good, Creator Spirit, by Whose Light, Father of Everlasting, Grace, Father of Lights, from Whom Proceeds, God Sent Me to the Desert Wild, Hark! upon the Morning Breezes, I Brought My Darkest Sin to Mind, I Brought My Merits to the Throne, I Praised the Earth in Beauty Seen, I Sought the Lord at Early Morn, If Listening, as I Listen Still, Jesu, If Still the Same Thou Art, Jesus, Thou Source of Calm Repose, Join, All Ye Servants of the Lord, Lord of the Sea! — Thy Potent Sway, O 'Tis Enough, My God, My God, O Come, Thou Radiant Morning Star, O Let My Trembling Soul Be Still, O Lord of Bounty, Let This Bread, O Lord, Whose Bounteous Hand Again, O Love, I Languish at Thy Stay, O Thou Whom Fain My Soul Would Love, O Thou, in Whom the Weary Find, Our Earth We Now Lament to See, Peace, Troubled Soul, Whose Plaintive Moan, Strange and Mysterious Is My Life, The Promise Which the Saviour Made, Thou God Unsearchable, Unknown, Thou Hidden Source of Calm Repose, Thou, Lord, on Whom I Still Depend, To Thee, My God! to Thee I Bring, Unless the Lord Had Been My Stay, Watched by the World's Malignant Eye, Weary of Wandering from My God, What Must It Be to Dwell Above, What Shall I Do My God to Love, When Quiet in My House I Sit, When Streaming from the Eastern Skies, When Thou Wert Crucified by Men, Would Jesus Have the Sinner Die.