Vidi speciosam - Victoria, John Rutter, The Cambridge Singers
19. 'Vidi speciosam'
From the album ‘Hail! Queen of Heaven’
Composer Tomás Luis de Victoria
Conductor John Rutter
Choir The Cambridge Singers
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LYRICS:
Vidi speciosam, sicut columbam, ascendentem desuper rivos aquarum, cuius inaestimabilis odor
erat nimis in vestimentis eius: Et sicut dies verni circumdabant earn flores rosarum et lilia
convallium. Quae est ista quae ascendit per desertum sicut virgula fumi ex aromatibus myrrhae et
thuris? Et sicut dies verni circumdabant eal flores rosarum et lilia convallium.
(Antiphon at the Feast of the Assumption)
(I saw a fair lady, like a dove, rising above the waters, whose raiment was filled with priceless
fragrance: and like a spring day, she was surrounded by roses and lilies of the valley. Who is she
who rises over the barren land like a plume of scented myrrh and frankincense? And like a spring
day she was surrounded by roses and lilies of the valley.)
Vidi speciosam
This expansive motet, published in 1572, shows Victoria's writing at its sunniest. The flowery text, its imagery recalling the Song of Songs and the Classical myth of Aphrodite rising from the waters, inspired the composer to a quite 'secular' madrigalian setting, with effective use of contrasts between high and low groups of voices, some word-painting here and there, and a clear-cut structure with recurring refrain-like sections inserted, one suspects, more to catch the ear than to inspire devotion.
Hail! Queen of Heaven
This recording, made in the architecturally and acoustically glorious setting of the Lady Chapel of Ely Cathedral by the 28 mixed voices of the Cambridge Singers, gathers together 21 examples of the extraordinary wealth of choral music inspired by the Virgin Mary, from Gregorian chant to the 20th-century sounds of Gustav Holst, Herbert Howells, Pierre Villette, Igor Stravinsky and Giles Swayne.
John Rutter, English composer and conductor, is associated with choral music throughout the world. His recordings with the Cambridge Singers (the professional chamber choir he set up in 1983) have reached a wide global audience, many of them featuring his own music in definitive versions. Among John’s best-known choral works are Gloria, Requiem, Magnificat, Mass of the Children, and Visions, together with many church anthems, choral songs and Christmas carols.
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