Thou Who Roll’st the Year Around in Tonic Solfa

Thou Who Roll’st the Year Around in Tonic Solfa to HEINLEIN, doh is F: the solfa with the words, staff notation, 6 verses and a piano.

The solfa with the words

Doh is F4/4
mThou-mwho-l,roll’st-t,the-dyear-ra--mround,---
mCrowned-mwith-smer--scies-felarge-feand-mfree,---
mRich-mThy-fgifts-fto-rus-ra--mbound,---
mWarm-mour-rpraise-dshall-t,rise-t,to-l,Thee.---

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Key
D minor
Doh
F
Time
4/4
Starts on
m (A)
Range
l, to s (D to C, a seventh)
Tune
HEINLEIN
Words
Ray Palmer
Music
Martin Herbst, Nurnberg

Tune HEINLEIN by Martin Herbst (died undefined) and Nurnberg (died undefined); words by Ray Palmer (1808–1887). 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 F · 4/4

| m - m - l, - t, - Thou who roll’st the| d - r - m - - - |year around,
| m - m - s - s - Crowned with mercies| fe - fe - m - - - |large and free,
| m - m - f - f - Rich Thy gifts to| r - r - m - - - |us abound,
| m - m - r - d - Warm our praise shall| t, - t, - l, - - - |rise to Thee.

Staff notation

The melody on the treble staff in D minor, with the first verse under the notes.

The words

Thou who roll’st the year around,
Crowned with mercies large and free,
Rich Thy gifts to us abound,
Warm our praise shall rise to Thee.

Kindly to our worship bow,
While our grateful thanks we tell,
That, sustained by Thee, we now
Bid the parting year farewell!

All its numbered days are sped,
All its busy scenes are o’er,
All its joys forever fled,
All its sorrows felt no more.

Mingled with th’ eternal past,
Its remembrance shall decay,
Yet to be revived at last
At the solemn Judgment Day.

All our follies, Lord, forgive!
Cleanse us from each guilty stain;
Let Thy grace within us live
That we spend not years in vain.

Then, when life’s last eve shall come,
Happy spirits, may we fly
To our everlasting home,
To our Father’s house on high!

How to sing it from the solfa

  • Find doh first. Play or hum F 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 (A).
  • 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. 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

Ray Palmer wrote these words. They were printed in the Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-Book (St. Louis, 1927), as hymn 165.

The book printed the words without tunes, marked Sevens (7.7.7.7), to be sung to any tune of that metre. This page sets them to HEINLEIN; any other Sevens tune fits them as well.

Tune HEINLEIN by Martin Herbst (died undefined) and Nurnberg (died undefined); words by Ray Palmer (1808–1887).

Sung to the same tune: All Ye Nations, Praise the Lord, As the Sun's Enliv'ning Eye, Bless, O Lord, Each Opening Year, Child, Amidst the Flowers at Play, Clay to Clay, and Dust to Dust, Father! We Look Up to Thee, Forty Days and Forty Nights, Gently Fall the Dews of Eve, Heavenly Father! to Whose Eye, High, in Yonder Realms of Light, Jesu, Shall I Never Be, Let Me Dwell on Golgotha, Light Is Dawning 'Mong the Hills, Lord! Subdue Our Selfish Will, Mighty One, Before Whose Face, Now the Shades of Night Are Gone, Praise, O Praise Our God and King, See, the World for Youth Prepares, Sin, When Viewed by Scripture Light, Soul! Celestial in Thy Birth, Thine Forever, God of Love, While I Lived Without the Lord.

Questions about Thou Who Roll’st the Year Around

What is the doh of Thou Who Roll’st the Year Around?

In this version, in D minor, doh is F. 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 Thou Who Roll’st the Year Around start on?

It starts on m (A in D minor). Find doh first, then sing up or down to m.

Is Thou Who Roll’st the Year Around in the public domain?

Yes. Ray Palmer died in 1887, Martin Herbst died in undefined, Nurnberg died in undefined; the words were in print by 1927 and the music in 1676. 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.

More by Ray Palmer

Everything by Ray Palmer (5 hymns)

More by Martin Herbst

Everything by Martin Herbst (23 hymns and 1 hymn tune)

More by Nurnberg

Everything by Nurnberg (23 hymns and 1 hymn tune)