Meditation (Gower): hymn tune in Tonic Solfa
Meditation (Gower), the hymn tune by John Henry Gower, in Tonic Solfa (doh is E): the solfa line by line, staff notation and a piano to sing along with.
Download the solfa (PDF)A4, free to print and share with your choir
- Key
- E major
- Doh
- E
- Time
- 4/4
- Starts on
- m (G♯)
- Range
- t, to l (D♯ to C♯, a seventh)
- Metre
- 8.6.8.6 — Common Metre (C.M.)
- Music
- John Henry Gower
Melody from the Christian Classics Ethereal Hymnary (CCEH, public domain); tune MEDITATION (GOWER) by John Henry Gower (1855–1922). Sources and licences.
The solfa
| m- | m-m-m-m- | m--dd-d- |
| f-f-m-r- | s-----s- |
| s-s-l-m- | s-f-m-r- |
| m-d-d-t,- | 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. To print it, download the solfa as a PDF.
Doh is E · 4/4
Staff notation
The melody on the treble staff in E major.
The staff is drawn here when you scroll to it.
About the tune
- Music (1890): John Henry Gower (1855–1922)
Metre: 8.6.8.6 — Common Metre (C.M.). Hymns on this site in the same metre: Almighty God Your Word Is Cast, Almighty Lord, Before Thy Throne, Hark the Glad Sound, Lamp of Our Feet, Let Children Hear the Mighty Deeds, Lord as to Thy Dear Cross, Lord While for All Mankind We Pray, Lord Who Throughout These Forty Days.
Melody from the Christian Classics Ethereal Hymnary (CCEH, public domain); tune MEDITATION (GOWER) by John Henry Gower (1855–1922). 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 Meditation (Gower)
What is the doh of Meditation (Gower)?
In this version, in E major, doh is E. 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 Meditation (Gower) start on?
It starts on m (G♯ in E major), a pickup before the first full bar. Find doh first, then sing up or down to m.
What words can be sung to Meditation (Gower)?
Meditation (Gower) is in the metre 8.6.8.6 — Common Metre (C.M.): lines of 8, 6, 8, 6 syllables. Words written in the same metre fit it, such as Almighty God Your Word Is Cast, Almighty Lord, Before Thy Throne, Hark the Glad Sound; check where the stresses fall before you sing them together.
Is Meditation (Gower) in the public domain?
Yes. John Henry Gower died in 1922; the tune was first published in 1890. 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.