Vidi Speciosam

Scored for: SSAATTBB a cappella
Level: More challenging
Duration: 7 minutes

This product is currently out of stock and unavailable.

Other Info: This SSAATTBB anthem was commissioned in 2012 by Simon Winter to celebrate 25 years of the chamber choir Felicitas.  

Will Todd writes:

"Thinking about the unaccompanied vocal texture brought me back to my 1995 setting of the words of The Venerable Bede, Christus Est Stella, which in turn made me think of the beautiful words of Vidi Speciosam. The setting seeks to convey the ecstatic nature of the text, set almost exclusively in a homophonic style; the harmonies are rich and opulent like the text."

A recording of this piece by Tenebrae is available on the album The Call of Wisdom, released by the Signum Classics label.

Vidi speciosam
sicut columbam ascendentem
desuper rivos aquarum;
cuius inaestimabilis odor erat
nimis in vestimentis eius.
Et sicut dies verni
circumdabant eam flores
rosarum et lilia convallium.
Quae est ista quae ascendit per desertum
sicut virgula fumi ex aromatibus
myrrhae et thuris?

I saw my fair one
like a dove rising
above the streams of water;
whose wonderful fragrance was
powerful in her clothing.
And, as on a spring day,
she was encircled by blooms of
roses and lilies of the valley.
Who is it that rises from the desert
like a plume of smoke suffused
with the scent of myrrh and incense?

Additional information

Details

ISMN: 9790060132889
Published by Boosey & Hawkes

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