Penitance: hymn tune in Tonic Solfa
Penitance, the hymn tune by Spencer Lane, in Tonic Solfa (doh is Db): 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
- Db major
- Doh
- Db
- Time
- 4/4
- Starts on
- m (F)
- Range
- r to m' (E♭ to F, a ninth)
- Metre
- 11.11.11.11
- Music
- Spencer Lane
Melody from the Christian Classics Ethereal Hymnary (CCEH, public domain); tune PENITANCE by Spencer Lane (1843–1903). Sources and licences.
The solfa
| m-m-f-m- | l---s--- |
| d'-m-s-r- | m------- |
| m-m-f-m- | t---s--- |
| fe-t-l-fe- | s---s--- |
| s-t-l-s- | d'-m-s--- |
| s-t-l-s- | d'-l-s--- |
| s-m'-r'-d'- | d'---l--- |
| s-s-s-s- | s------- |
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 Db · 4/4
Staff notation
The melody on the treble staff in Db major.
The staff is drawn here when you scroll to it.
About the tune
- Music (1875): Spencer Lane (1843–1903)
Metre: 11.11.11.11. Hymns on this site in the same metre: How Firm a Foundation, Take Thou My Hand and Lead Me.
Melody from the Christian Classics Ethereal Hymnary (CCEH, public domain); tune PENITANCE by Spencer Lane (1843–1903). 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 Penitance
What is the doh of Penitance?
In this version, in Db major, doh is Db. 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 Penitance start on?
It starts on m (F in Db major). Find doh first, then sing up or down to m.
What words can be sung to Penitance?
Penitance is in the metre 11.11.11.11: lines of 11, 11, 11, 11 syllables. Words written in the same metre fit it, such as How Firm a Foundation, Take Thou My Hand and Lead Me; check where the stresses fall before you sing them together.
Is Penitance in the public domain?
Yes. Spencer Lane died in 1903; the tune was first published in 1875. 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.