When They Ring Those Golden Bells: hymn tune in Tonic Solfa
When They Ring Those Golden Bells, the hymn tune, in Tonic Solfa (doh is F): the solfa, 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
- s (C)
- Range
- s, to d' (C to F)
- Metre
- 8.8.11.8.8.11
- Music
- Dion De Marbelle
Melody from the Christian Classics Ethereal Hymnary (CCEH, public domain); tune WHEN THEY RING THOSE GOLDEN BELLS by Dion De Marbelle (1818–1903). Sources and licences.
The solfa
| s-,f | m-,rem-,rem,s-m-,d | l,-,t,d-,l,s,,d-d-,r |
| m-,rem-,fs-,fel-,s | r-----r-,m |
| f-,ms-,mr,d-d-,t, | l,-,t,d-,l,s,,d-d-,r |
| m-,sd'-,ls-,mr-,m | d--la,s,-s-,s |
| l-,fd'-,lf,l-d'-,l | s-,ls-,mm,s-s-,s |
| d'-,tl-,sf-,mr-,d | s-----s-,f |
| m-,rem-,rem,s-m-,d | l,-,t,d-,l,s,,d-d-,r |
| m-,sd'-,ls-,mr-,m | 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 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 (1887): Dion De Marbelle (1818–1903)
Metre: 8.8.11.8.8.11.
Melody from the Christian Classics Ethereal Hymnary (CCEH, public domain); tune WHEN THEY RING THOSE GOLDEN BELLS by Dion De Marbelle (1818–1903). 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 When They Ring Those Golden Bells
What is the doh of When They Ring Those Golden Bells?
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 When They Ring Those Golden Bells start on?
It starts on s (C in F major), a pickup before the first full bar. Find doh first, then sing up or down to s.
What words can be sung to When They Ring Those Golden Bells?
When They Ring Those Golden Bells is in the metre 8.8.11.8.8.11: lines of 8, 8, 11, 8, 8, 11 syllables. Words written in the same metre fit it; check where the stresses fall before you sing them together.
Is When They Ring Those Golden Bells in the public domain?
Yes. Dion De Marbelle died in 1903; the tune was first published in 1887. 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.