Domenico Scarlatti

The Stabat Mater is a 13th-century Christian hymn to the Virgin Mary that portrays her suffering as mother during the crucifixion of her son Jesus Christ. Its author may be either the Franciscanfriar Jacopone da Todi or Pope Innocent III. The title comes from its first line, "Stabat Mater dolorosa", which means "the sorrowful mother was standing".

The hymn is sung at the liturgy on the memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows. The Stabat Mater has been set to music by many Western composers.

The Stabat Mater has often been ascribed to Jacopone da Todi (ca. 1230–1306), but this has been strongly challenged by the discovery of the earliest notated copy of the Stabat Mater in a 13th-century gradual belonging to the Dominican nuns in Bologna (Museo Civico Medievale MS 518, fo. 200v-04r).

The Stabat Mater was well known by the end of the 14th century and Georgius Stella wrote of its use in 1388, while other historians note its use later in the same century. In Provence, about 1399, it was used during the nine days' processions.

As a liturgical sequence, the Stabat Mater was suppressed, along with hundreds of other sequences, by the Council of Trent, but restored to the missal by Pope Benedict XIII in 1727 for the Feast of the Seven Dolours of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stabat_Mater

Concert Notes from The Tudor Consort:

The Stabat Mater is the greatest and most well-known example of Scarlatti’s church music. It is difficult to date this work, but scholars place his church music quite early on in his career (1708-28) when he was active at Santa Maria Maggiore and the Cappella Giulia at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

Rather than dividing the voices into two choirs, Scarlatti skilfully weaves them all in ten-part counterpoint virtually throughout the entire work. This stylistic throw-back to the Renaissance is mixed with a thoroughly Baroque feel for harmony and texture.

Sopranos: Anna Edginton, Erin King, Jane McKinlay, Anna Sedcole
Altos: Andrea Cochrane, Jessica Lightfoot
Tenors: Dan Carberg, Philip Roderick
Basses: Brian Hesketh, Matthew Leese

Organ: Douglas Mews
Harpsichord: Donald Nicholson
Cello: Emma Goodbehere
Bass: Richard Hardie
Theorbo: Steve Pickett

Guest Conductor: Matthew Leese
Music Director: Michael Stewart
Live recording from The Tudor Consort's concert: A German Requiem.