Messiah (Herald): hymn tune in Tonic Solfa
Messiah (Herald), the hymn tune by Louis J. F. Herold, in Tonic Solfa (doh is F): 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
- F major
- Doh
- F
- Time
- 4/4
- Starts on
- m (A)
- Range
- t, to l (E to D, a seventh)
- Metre
- 7.7.7.7
- Music
- Louis J. F. Herold
Melody from the Christian Classics Ethereal Hymnary (CCEH, public domain); tune MESSIAH (HERALD) by Louis J. F. Herold (fl. 1839). Sources and licences.
The solfa
| m--rd-d- | f--mr--- |
| s--ll-s- | m-d-r--- |
| m--rd-d- | f--mr--- |
| s--ls-m- | r--dd--- |
| t,--dr-f- | m--rd--- |
| r--mf-l- | s--fm--- |
| m--rd-d- | f--mr--- |
| s--ls-m- | r--dd--- |
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 F · 4/4
Staff notation
The melody on the treble staff in F major.
The staff is drawn here when you scroll to it.
About the tune
- Music (1839): Louis J. F. Herold (fl. 1839)
- Arranged (1839): George Kingsley (fl. 1839)
Metre: 7.7.7.7. Hymns on this site in the same metre: Holy Ghost, with Light Divine, Now the Light Has Gone Away, Take My Life and Let It Be.
Melody from the Christian Classics Ethereal Hymnary (CCEH, public domain); tune MESSIAH (HERALD) by Louis J. F. Herold (fl. 1839). 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. The arranger named above set CCEH's harmony, which is not shown here.
New to solfa? Read how to read Tonic Solfa and how to find the doh of a song.
Questions about Messiah (Herald)
What is the doh of Messiah (Herald)?
In this version, in F major, 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 Messiah (Herald) start on?
It starts on m (A in F major). Find doh first, then sing up or down to m.
What words can be sung to Messiah (Herald)?
Messiah (Herald) is in the metre 7.7.7.7: lines of 7, 7, 7, 7 syllables. Words written in the same metre fit it, such as Holy Ghost, with Light Divine, Now the Light Has Gone Away, Take My Life and Let It Be; check where the stresses fall before you sing them together.
Is Messiah (Herald) in the public domain?
Yes. Louis J. F. Herold's work dates from 1839, George Kingsley's work dates from 1839; the tune was first published in 1839. 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.