A setting of the "Stabat Mater" for Holy Week

Meditating on the Passion with Our Lady, in choral music

Today, Maundy Thursday, and for the remainder of the Triduum, one should be thinking of little else than Our Blessed Savior and the intimate circle who shared in His Passion — especially Our Blessed Mother.

For that reason, in lieu of a regular article (and skipping tomorrow’s as well), I will share instead a piece of music well-suited to this moment: the setting of the Stabat Mater that I composed for His Majesty’s Men (Richard Childress, countertenor; Matthew Dean, tenor; Joe Labozetta, baritone; Nathaniel Adams, baritone; Ian Prichard, bass). This excellent ensemble gave the work its premiere this past August 12 at a concert at St. John Cantius Church in Chicago, with a subsequent performance in Grand Rapids.

Attributed to Jacopone da Todi (1230–1306), the hymn Stabat Mater dolorosa is appointed for liturgical use on September 15th, in commemoration of Our Lady of Sorrows. Numerous musical settings of the poem bear eloquent witness to a long history of devotional use. The twenty stanzas of the sequence are not so much a narrative of events as a meditation on different facets of the Virgin Mother’s sorrows and the believer’s desire to share them with her. Below is a quite literal translation of the Latin text, which I think brings out the stark beauty of the sentiments better than the sing-songy translations we often get in our missals or devotional books.

In this work, I set ten of the verses (1–3, 5, 9–11, 16–17, and 20) for five-part men’s choir, interspersing them with the Gregorian chant for the remaining ten verses (4, 6–8, 12–15, and 18–19); the latter verses are sometimes sung plainly and sometimes with an ison and contrary organum. The purity and simplicity of the chant lines contrast well with the intricate texture and dense harmonies of the polyphony parts.

This is a very live recording — complete with car brakes, city buses, and honking horns, courtesy of the busy neighborhood of St John Cantius! John Cage, Edgard Varèse, and Henry Cowell would no doubt be pleased.

Those who might wish to follow along in the score will find a complete PDF of it here.

Translation

The grieving Mother stood weeping
beside the cross
where her Son was hanging.

Through her weeping soul,
compassionate and grieving,
a sword passed.

O how sad and afflicted
was that blessed Mother
of the Only-begotten!

Who mourned and grieved,
the merciful Mother, looking at
the torment of her glorious Child.

Who is the man who would not weep,
seeing the Mother of Christ
in such agony?

Who would not be able to feel compassion
on beholding Christ’s Mother
suffering with her Son?

For the sins of his people
she saw Jesus in torment
and subjected to the scourge.

She saw her sweet offspring
dying, forsaken,
while He gave up his spirit.

O Mother, fountain of love,
make me feel the power of sorrow,
that I may grieve with you.

Grant that my heart may burn
with the love of Christ-God,
that I may be pleasing to Him.

Holy Mother, do this thing for me:
firmly fix in my heart
the wounds of the Crucified:

That I may share the pain
of your wounded Son,
who deigned to suffer so for me.

Make me sincerely to weep with you,
bemoan the Crucified,
for as long as I live.

To stand beside the cross with you,
and to join you in your weeping—
this I desire.

Resplendent Virgin of virgins,
be not harsh to me:
make me weep with thee.

Make it so that I bear the death of Christ,
the fate of his Passion,
and meditate on His wounds.

Make me to be wounded with His wounds,
make me inebriated by the Cross
and by your Son’s Blood.

Lest I burn, set afire by flames,
O Virgin, may I be defended by you
on the Day of Judgment.

O Christ, when it is time to pass away,
grant that through your Mother I may come
to the palm of victory.

When my body dies,
grant that my soul be given
the glory of paradise. Amen.