The Winds and Billows Loudly Roar in Tonic Solfa
The Winds and Billows Loudly Roar 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
- Christopher Wordsworth
- 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 Christopher Wordsworth (1807–1885). Sources and licences.
The solfa with the words
| m,The- | l,winds-t,and-dbil--rlowsd_ | t,loud--l,lys,_m,roar-m,We- |
| l,flound--t,er-din-rthe- | mdeep-----dOurr_ |
| mbark-fism_rfrail,-dfar- | t,off-l,thes,_m,shore,-m,And- |
| l,Je--t,sus-disl,_t,a-- | l,sleep.----- |
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 winds and billows loudly roar
We flounder in the deep
Our bark is frail, far off the shore,
And Jesus is asleep.
"Save us, we perish, Lord," they cry;
To Thee we fly for aid;
"Awake! awake!" they say; but why
So faithless and afraid?
His head is pillow'd on the stern,
As Man He is asleep;
As God He all things does discern,
And endless vigils keep.
He does the elements control;
By His Almighty Will.
The angry waves their surges roll;
And at His Word are still.
O ye, who in the Church's Bark
O'er life's rough ocean sail,
When all around is drear and dark,
and human efforts fail,
Touch not, with rude, irreverent hands,
And coward faithlessness,
Him, who the winds and waves commands;
But wait in quietness.
O never, never when distressed,
To doubtful means resort;
Christ's Bark, when on the billow's crest,
Is safe as in the port.
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 by Christopher Wordsworth, first published in 1865. The tune, CONSOLATION, is by John Wyeth (1813). This version of the melody and the words comes from the Open Hymnal Project.
- Words (1865): Christopher Wordsworth (1807–1885)
- 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 Christopher Wordsworth (1807–1885). 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 King Shall Come.
Questions about The Winds and Billows Loudly Roar
What is the doh of The Winds and Billows Loudly Roar?
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 Winds and Billows Loudly Roar 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 Winds and Billows Loudly Roar in the public domain?
Yes. Christopher Wordsworth died in 1885, John Wyeth died in 1858; the words were first published in 1865 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.