Help finding a specific setting of "Vidi Aquam"
  • Proteus
    Posts: 2
    Hello everyone,
    years ago, at my old parish, I heard a version of "Vidi Aquam" which I have never heard anywhere else and which I have been unable to find online. I tried getting in touch with that parish to ask about it, but never heard back. I've attached a pdf with the tune as accurately as I can remember it, and I'd appreciate any help in tracking down the actual music.
    Thanks,
    Proteus
    Vidi_Aquam.pdf
    42K
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,732
    Have you checked the versions on https://gregobase.selapa.net/incipit.php?letter=V
  • PhilipPowell
    Posts: 115
    I checked GregoBase and nothing seems to match.
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,068
    I don't think this is chant, except for the incipit.
    This was notated by somebody without a lot of experience with music notation programs, or somebody who was just knocking it out quickly as an approximation. And if that was you, Proteus, I'm sorry, but it is what it is. And because of that, a lot of the features of the music are obscured.

    Such as that it's in 3/4. The first syllable of "egrediente" is a pickup, and it goes quite nicely in 3 for a good while, until "aqua ista", which looks like it may be a garbled hemiola. "SAL-vi" is a downbeat, and we're good in 3 until the last Alleluia, which is in 4 as a notated rallentando. The Bb is the kicker: no room for that in chant at all, but it could be harmonized as viid7/V, or with an Eb chord after an F as a root-motion-by-2nd gambit.

    Unfortunately, that makes it harder, not easier, to trace. It has to be pre-conciliar, because who afterward would set a Latin vidi? But it's way too interesting for the bulk of published preconciliar music. This jaunty little tune was probably published by WLSM in the 50s, as a first guess. A local product would be the second guess. I can search through pieces later (and y'all can do so as well), but this may be a needle-in-haystack thing.
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen tomjaw
  • Proteus
    Posts: 2
    Hi Jeffrey,
    yes, I just "knocked it out", as you say - it didn't occur to me to consider that knowing the time signature, for example, would be helpful. I was hoping someone would simply recognize the tune. I was beginning to suspect it was composed by someone at the parish, like you suggested, but I thought if anyone could help, it would be someone here.
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,068
    It's very "aggiornamento". It's like NO music, but they hadn't figured out that everyone had to have music simple enough for anyone to sing. Like I said, I'll look into it. But a lot of that music is late enough to still be under international copyright, so I won't have a lot to look at.
Add a Comment