Bread of Life: hymn tune in Tonic Solfa
Bread of Life, the hymn tune by William F. Sherman, in Tonic Solfa (doh is Eb): the solfa line by line, staff notation and a piano to sing along with.
- Key
- Eb major
- Doh
- Eb
- Time
- 2/2
- Starts on
- m (G)
- Range
- d to d' (E♭ to E♭, an octave)
- Metre
- 10.10.10.10
- Music
- William F. Sherman
Melody from the Christian Classics Ethereal Hymnary (CCEH, public domain); tune BREAD OF LIFE by William F. Sherman (1826–1888). Sources and licences.
The solfa
| m---d-m- | s-l-s--- |
| m---d-m- | r------- |
| m---d-m- | s-l-s-l- |
| t---l--- | s------- |
| r---m-f- | l-s-m--- |
| s---l-l- | t------- |
| d'---s-m- | r-f-l-f- |
| r---s--- | d------- |
The solfa line by line
The same solfa as plain text, easy to copy into your own notes or a WhatsApp message to the choir.
Doh is Eb · 2/2
Staff notation
The melody on the treble staff in Eb major.
The staff is drawn here when you scroll to it.
About the tune
- Music (1877): William F. Sherman (1826–1888)
Metre: 10.10.10.10. Hymns on this site in the same metre: Not Worthy, Lord, to Gather Up the Crumbs.
Melody from the Christian Classics Ethereal Hymnary (CCEH, public domain); tune BREAD OF LIFE by William F. Sherman (1826–1888). The CCEH gives its tunes as four-part scores; this page has the melody only, read from its MIDI file and checked against its incipit, and NoteFusion's engine wrote the solfa from the notes. It has not yet been checked against a printed hymn book.
New to solfa? Read how to read Tonic Solfa and how to find the doh of a song.
Questions about Bread of Life
What is the doh of Bread of Life?
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 Bread of Life start on?
It starts on m (G in Eb major). Find doh first, then sing up or down to m.
What words can be sung to Bread of Life?
Bread of Life is in the metre 10.10.10.10: lines of 10, 10, 10, 10 syllables. Words written in the same metre fit it, such as Not Worthy, Lord, to Gather Up the Crumbs; check where the stresses fall before you sing them together.
Is Bread of Life in the public domain?
Yes. William F. Sherman died in 1888; the tune was first published in 1877. Everyone named died before 1955 and it was published before 1929, so the tune is out of copyright in Nigeria, the UK, the EU and the United States. Modern arrangements of it can still be under copyright.