There Is a Green Hill Far Away in Tonic Solfa
There Is a Green Hill Far Away in Tonic Solfa to HORSLEY: the solfa with the words, staff notation, the five verses, and a piano.
The solfa with the words
| dThere- | ris-ma-fgreen-mhill- | sfar-fa-m_rway,-sWith-- |
| mout-d'a-tci--lty- | swall,-----rWheremthe |
| fdear-fLord-fwas-mcru-- | lci--lfied-se_-seWho- |
| ldied-fto-msave-rus- | dall.----- |
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
- d (E♭)
- Range
- d to d' (E♭ to E♭, an octave)
- Tune
- HORSLEY
- Music
- William Horsley
Tune HORSLEY by William Horsley (died undefined); words by Cecil Frances Alexander (1818–1895). 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
There is a green hill far away,
Without a city wall,
Where the dear Lord was crucified,
Who died to save us all.
We may not know, we cannot tell
What pains he had to bear;
But we believe it was for us
He hung and suffered there.
He died that we might be forgiven,
He died to make us good,
That we might go at last to heaven,
Saved by his precious blood.
There was no other good enough
To pay the price of sin;
He only could unlock the gate
Of heaven, and let us in.
Oh dearly, dearly has he loved,
And we must love him too,
And trust in his redeeming blood,
And try his works to do.
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 d (E♭), on the word “There”, 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 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
Cecil Frances Alexander wrote the words, first published in 1848. The tune, HORSLEY, is by William Horsley (1844).
- Words (1848): Cecil Frances Alexander (1818–1895)
- Music (1844): William Horsley (died undefined)
Tune HORSLEY by William Horsley (died undefined); words by Cecil Frances Alexander (1818–1895).
Questions about There Is a Green Hill Far Away
What is the doh of There Is a Green Hill Far Away?
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 There Is a Green Hill Far Away start on?
It starts on d (E♭ in Eb major), a pickup on the word “There” before the first full bar. Find doh first, then sing up or down to d.
Is There Is a Green Hill Far Away in the public domain?
Yes. Cecil Frances Alexander died in 1895, William Horsley died in undefined; the words were first published in 1848 and the music in 1844. 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.