PDF • Organ Accompaniment to the “Vidi Aquam”

Jeff Ostrowski · April 19, 2015

N ORGANIST VERSION of the “Vidi Aquam” composed by Monsignor Jules Van Nuffel (1883-1953), one of the teachers of Flor Peeters:

* * PDF Download • “Vidi Aquam” Organ Accompaniment

I apologize that this article is so short!

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

About Jeff Ostrowski

Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He resides with his wife and children in Michigan. —(Read full biography).

PDF Download • “Offertory” (Palm Sunday)

Some believe “joyful” texts sound happy in Gregorian Chant and “sad” texts sound mournful—but that’s a misconception. For instance, Father Guy Nicholls pointed out that Easter Sunday’s INTROIT “probably sounds too austere and difficult for such a joyous piece.” Another example is the very sad OFFERTORY for Palm Sunday, set in “happy” mode 8. The lesson is: Greegorian settings are quite sophisticated—they’re anything but superficial. You can download the OFFERTORY for Palm Sunday in English, which seems to “fit” the text admirably.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“And the Chief Priests…” (Palm Sunday)

Many Catholics would be surprised to see this section of the Bible (John 12: 9-12): “and the chief priests made a plot against Lazarus’ life too…”

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Reader Feedback” • 7 April 2025

A reader in Poland writes: “I don’t know where our music would be without these psalms. We’ve been using them in an English Mass in Poland for probably 15 years. As a non-musician with little training (high school choir, some basic piano), these made singing the psalm a cappella in Mass possible for about a year and a half before we got an organist who has relied on them since 2011. The site is a huge help for me singing all the chants of the TRIDUUM (apart from the priest’s or deacon’s chant) a cappella with no musical support, because I learned so much from doing the psalms at Sunday Mass a capella for many months. Your site is completely invaluable for us! I can’t calculate how helpful it’s been … and still is to us in Poland, where English print resources don’t exist and are very expensive to import.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962

There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop

—Veronica Brandt

The Funeral Rites of the Graduale Romanum

Lately I have been paging through the 1974 Graduale Romanum (see p. 678 ff.) and have been fascinated by the funeral rites found therein, especially the simply-beautiful Psalmody that is appointed for all the different occasions before and after the funeral Mass: at the vigil/wake, at the house of the deceased, processing to the church, at the church, processing to the cemetery, and at the cemetery. Would that this “stational Psalmody” of the Novus Ordo funeral rites saw wider usage! If you or anyone you know have ever used it, please do let me know.

—Daniel Tucker

Antiphons Don’t Match?

A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music).

—Corpus Christi Watershed

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About Jeff Ostrowski