The Morning Light Is Breaking in Tonic Solfa
The Morning Light Is Breaking in Tonic Solfa to GREENLAND, doh is Eb: the solfa with the words, staff notation, 3 verses and a piano.
The solfa with the words
| mThe- | smorn--sing-slight-sis- | d'break----ming;-mThe- |
| rdark--rness-fdis--fap-- | mpears;-----rThe- |
| msons-sof-searth-sare- | d'wa----feking-feTo- |
| spen--li--tten--ltial- | stears;-----tEach- |
| d'breeze-sthat-fsweeps-mthe- | mo----rcean-tBrings- |
| d'ti--sdings-ffrom-ma-- | rfar-----s,Of- |
| dna--mtions-sin--secom- | tmo----ltion,-lPre-- |
| spared-mfor-mZi---ron’s | dwar.----- |
Got your choir's recording? Get it in solfa →
Download the solfa (PDF)A4, free to print and share with your choir
- Key
- Eb major
- Doh
- Eb
- Time
- 4/4
- Starts on
- m (G)
- Range
- s, to d' (B♭ to E♭)
- Tune
- GREENLAND
- Words
- Samuel Francis Smith
- Music
- Johann Michael Haydn, B. Jacob
Tune GREENLAND by Johann Michael Haydn (1737–1806) and B. Jacob (died undefined); words by Samuel Francis Smith (1808–1895). 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
The morning light is breaking;
The darkness disappears;
The sons of earth are waking
To penitential tears;
Each breeze that sweeps the ocean
Brings tidings from afar
Of nations in commotion,
Prepared for Zion’s war.
See heathen nations bending
Before the God we love,
And thousand hearts ascending
In gratitude above;
While sinners, now confessing,
The Gospel call obey
And seek the Savior’s blessing,
A nation in a day.
Blest river of salvation,
Pursue thy onward way;
Flow thou to every nation,
Nor in thy richness stay;
Stay not till all the lowly
Triumphant reach their home;
Stay not till all the holy
Proclaim, “The Lord is come!”
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 m (G), 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 and the chromatic fe se. 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
Samuel Francis Smith wrote these words. They were printed in the Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-Book (St. Louis, 1927), as hymn 471.
The book printed the words without tunes, marked Sevens and Sixes Double (7.6.7.6.7.6.7.6), to be sung to any tune of that metre. This page sets them to GREENLAND; any other Sevens and Sixes Double tune fits them as well.
- Words: Samuel Francis Smith (1808–1895)
- Music: Johann Michael Haydn (1737–1806)
- Arranged (National Psalmody, 1819): B. Jacob (died undefined)
Tune GREENLAND by Johann Michael Haydn (1737–1806) and B. Jacob (died undefined); words by Samuel Francis Smith (1808–1895).
Sung to the same tune: How Blest, Amid All Blessing, Light of the Gentile Nations, O God of Our Salvation, Shall Men Pretend to Pleasure, The Heavens Declare His Glory, We Come with Joy and Gladness, When Shall the Voice of Singing.
Questions about The Morning Light Is Breaking
What is the doh of The Morning Light Is Breaking?
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 The Morning Light Is Breaking start on?
It starts on m (G in Eb major), a pickup on the word “The” before the first full bar. Find doh first, then sing up or down to m.
Is The Morning Light Is Breaking in the public domain?
Yes. Samuel Francis Smith died in 1895, Johann Michael Haydn died in 1806, B. Jacob died in undefined; the words were in print by 1927 and the music in 1819. 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.