This is my new setting of the great C13 Christian Hymn usually called the Stabat Mater after its opening two words. The authorship of the hymn is in doubt, but it is often attributed to either a Franciscan friar, Jacopone da Todi (c.1230-1306), or Pope Innocent III (c.1160-1216). The earliest known text is in a C13 Gradual belonging to the Dominican nuns of Bologna.

​

The text has been set by many composers, most notably in 1736 by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. My new setting is for choir (S,A,T,B), solo soprano and solo alto, and, like Pergolesi, the orchestration is restrained (2 oboes and strings). The music follows strictly the trochaic tetrameters of the original Latin verse. The full Latin text, along with the famous 1849 translation by Edward Caswall, is available here.