HOSE WHO WILL attend Sacred Music Symposium 2019 can look forward to singing Solemn Vespers at night—and we have beautiful things planned! One of the hymns is for Saint John the Baptist—UT QUEANT LAXIS—and it shows us where “Do-Re-Mi” comes from. (Later on, “Ut” was changed to “Do,” perhaps as an exercise in vanity by Giovanni Battista Doni.) Here is the Editio Vaticana version from a wonderful Solesmes Abbey book published in 1957:
* * PDF • “Ut Queant Laxis” (Vaticana)
What about an organ accompaniment? If you carefully search the NOH collection, you will see that two different harmonizations are provided for this hymn: One in volume 7, another in volume 8. (It is slightly puzzling to understand why, but sometimes a particular melody seems to have “struck a chord”—pardon the pun—with the editors. When that happens, we encounter in the NOH various harmonizations for the same melody by different composers: Monsignor Jules Van Nuffel, Flor Peeters, Monsignor Jules Vyverman, Gustaaf Frans Nees, and so on.)
A concise and clear explanation vis-à-vis how we got solfège (DO-RE-MI-FA-SOL-LA-TI) is provided on page 1,229 of the 1957 publication mentioned earlier:
A literal translation of the Latin by Father Connelly:
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For myself, I prefer the melodic variant found in the 1903 Liber Usualis of Dom Mocquereau. The problem is, if your choir already knows the standard version, it will be annoying to introduce a different tune—but I really do like it better:
* * PDF Download • Melodic Variant (1903)
(Believe it or not, this accompaniment matches the 1903 version, not the Editio Vaticana.)
Did I mention I prefer the 1903 version? Sorry, just checking…
Veronica Brandt has created an Editio Vaticana version with a different literal English Translation underneath the notes:
* * PDF Download • Version by Veronica Brandt
