The King Shall Come in Tonic Solfa
The King Shall Come in Tonic Solfa: the solfa line by line with the words, staff notation, all 7 verses, and a piano to sing along with.
- Key
- F minor
- Doh
- Ab
- Time
- 4/4
- Starts on
- m, (C)
- Range
- m, to f (C to D♭, a ninth)
- Tune
- CONSOLATION
- Words
- Anonymous, John Brownlie
- Music
- John Wyeth
Melody and words from the Open Hymnal Project (public domain), edited by Brian J. Dumont; tune CONSOLATION by John Wyeth (1770–1858); words by Anonymous; translated by John Brownlie (1857–1925). Sources and licences.
The solfa with the words
| m,The- | l,King-t,shall-dcome-rwhend_ | t,morn--l,ings,_m,dawns,-m,And- |
| l,light-t,tri--dum--rphant- | mbreaks;-----dWhenr_ |
| mbeau--ftym_rgilds-dthe- | t,east--l,erns,_m,hills,-m,And- |
| l,life-t,to-djoyl,_t,a-- | l,wakes.----- |
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 WhatsApp message to the choir.
Doh is Ab · 4/4
Staff notation
The melody on the treble staff in F minor, with the first verse under the notes.
The staff is drawn here when you scroll to it.
The words
The King shall come when morning dawns,
And light triumphant breaks;
When beauty gilds the eastern hills,
And life to joy awakes.
Not as of old a little child
To bear, and fight, and die,
But crowned with glory like the sun
That lights the morning sky.
O brighter than the rising morn
When He, victorious, rose,
And left the lonesome place of death,
Despite the rage of foes.
O brighter than that glorious morn
Shall this fair morning be,
When Christ, our King, in beauty comes,
And we His face shall see.
The King shall come when morning dawns,
And earth's dark night is past;
O haste the rising of that morn,
The day that aye shall last.
And let the endless bliss begin,
By weary saints foretold,
When right shall triumph over wrong,
And truth shall be extolled.
The King shall come when morning dawns,
And light and beauty brings:
Hail, Christ the Lord! Thy people pray,
Come quickly, King of kings.
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 m, (C), on the word “The”, 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
The words are anonymous. The English translation is by John Brownlie (1907). The tune, CONSOLATION, is by John Wyeth (1813). This version of the melody and the words comes from the Open Hymnal Project.
- Words: Anonymous
- Translated (1907): John Brownlie (1857–1925)
- Music (1813): John Wyeth (1770–1858)
Melody and words from the Open Hymnal Project (public domain), edited by Brian J. Dumont; tune CONSOLATION by John Wyeth (1770–1858); words by Anonymous; translated by John Brownlie (1857–1925). The Open Hymnal Project publishes this hymn 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: The Winds and Billows Loudly Roar.
Questions about The King Shall Come
What is the doh of The King Shall Come?
In this version, in F minor, doh is Ab. 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 The King Shall Come start on?
It starts on m, (C in F minor), a pickup on the word “The” before the first full bar. Find doh first, then sing up or down to m,.
Is The King Shall Come in the public domain?
Yes. John Brownlie died in 1925, John Wyeth died in 1858; the words were first published in 1907 and the music in 1813. Everyone named died before 1955 and both were published before 1929, so the hymn is out of copyright in Nigeria, the UK, the EU and the United States. Modern arrangements and translations can still be under copyright.