The Stabat Mater is a 13th-century

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

hymn to Mary Marian hymns are Christian songs focused on Mary, mother of Jesus. They are used in both devotional and liturgical services, particularly by the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran churches. They are often used in the mont ...

, which portrays her suffering as

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

's mother during his

crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagin ...

. Its author may be either the

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ol ...

Jacopone da Todi Jacopone da Todi, O.F.M. (ca. 1230 – 25 December 1306) was an Italian Franciscan friar from Umbria. He wrote several ''laude'' (songs in praise of the Lord) in the local vernacular. He was an early pioneer in Italian theatre, being one of ...

Pope Innocent III Pope Innocent III ( la, Innocentius III; 1160 or 1161 – 16 July 1216), born Lotario dei Conti di Segni (anglicized as Lothar of Segni), was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1198 to his death in 16 J ...

.Sabatier, Paul ''Life of St. Francis Assisi'' Charles Scribner Press, NY, 1919, page 286''The seven great hymns of the Mediaeval Church'' by Charles Cooper Nott 1868 ASIN: B003KCW2LA page 96 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 Our Lady of Sorrows ( la, Beata Maria Virgo Perdolens), Our Lady of Dolours, the Sorrowful Mother or Mother of Sorrows ( la, Mater Dolorosa, link=no), and Our Lady of Piety, Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows or Our Lady of the Seven Dolours are names ...

. The Stabat Mater has been set to music by many

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

composers.

Date

The Stabat Mater has often been ascribed to

, OFM (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 The gradual ( la, graduale or ) is a chant or hymn in the Mass, the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist in the Catholic Church, and among some other Christians. It gets its name from the Latin (meaning "step") because it was once chanted ...

belonging to the Dominican nuns in

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

(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 Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...

, 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 The Council of Trent ( la, Concilium Tridentinum), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trento, Trent (or Trento), now in northern Italian Peninsula, Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation ...

, but restored to the missal by

Pope Benedict XIII Pope Benedict XIII ( la, Benedictus XIII; it, Benedetto XIII; 2 February 1649 – 21 February 1730), born Pietro Francesco Orsini and later called Vincenzo Maria Orsini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 29 May ...

in 1727 for the Feast of the Seven Dolours of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Text and translation

The Latin text below is from an 1853

Roman Breviary The Roman Breviary (Ecclesiastical Latin, Latin: ''Breviarium Romanum'') is a breviary of the Roman Rite in the Catholic Church. A liturgical book, it contains public or canonical Catholic prayer, prayers, hymns, the Psalms, readings, and notati ...

and is one of multiple extant versions of the poem. The first English translation by

Edward Caswall Edward Caswall, CO, (15 July 1814 – 2 January 1878) was an Anglican clergyman and hymn writer who converted to Catholicism and became an Oratorian priest. His more notable hymns include: "Alleluia! Alleluia! Let the Holy Anthem Rise"; "Come, ...

is not literal but preserves the

trochaic tetrameter Trochaic tetrameter is a meter in poetry. It refers to a line of four trochaic feet. The etymology of the word Trochaic is the Greek word ''trokhaios'', from the verb ''trecho'', which means "I run". In classical metre, a trochee is a foot consis ...

rhyme scheme and sense of the original text. The second English version is a more

formal equivalence The terms dynamic equivalence and formal equivalence, coined by Eugene Nida, are associated with two dissimilar translation approaches that are employed to achieve different levels of literalness between the source and target text, as evidenc ...

translation.

Musical settings

Composers who have written settings of the ''Stabat Mater'' include: *

Josquin des Prez Josquin Lebloitte dit des Prez ( – 27 August 1521) was a composer of High Renaissance music, who is variously described as French or Franco-Flemish. Considered one of the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he was a central figure of the ...

Dvořák: Stabat Mater. Oratorio for Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra
at

Supraphon Supraphon Music Publishing is a Czech record label, oriented mainly towards publishing classical music and popular music, with an emphasis on Czech and Slovak composers. History The Supraphon name was first registered as a trademark in 1932. T ...

website. *

Orlande de Lassus Orlande de Lassus ( various other names; probably – 14 June 1594) was a composer of the late Renaissance. The chief representative of the mature polyphonic style in the Franco-Flemish school, Lassus stands with Giovanni Pierluigi da Palest ...

(1585) * Palestrina: Stabat Mater (c.1590) *

Giovanni Felice Sances Giovanni Felice Sances (also Sancies, Sanci, Sanes, Sanchez, ca. 160024 November 1679) was an Italian singer and a Baroque composer. He was renowned in Europe during his time. Sances studied at the Collegio Germanico in Rome from 1609 to 1614. ...

(1643) *

Marc-Antoine Charpentier Marc-Antoine Charpentier (; 1643 – 24 February 1704) was a French Baroque composer during the reign of Louis XIV. One of his most famous works is the main theme from the prelude of his ''Te Deum'', ''Marche en rondeau''. This theme is still us ...

H.15 & H.387 (1685–90) *

Louis-Nicolas Clérambault Louis-Nicolas Clérambault (19 December 1676 – 26 October 1749) was a French musician, best known as an organist and composer. He was born, and died, in Paris. Biography Clérambault came from a musical family (his father and two of his sons w ...

C. 70 (17..) * Sébastien de Brossard SdB.8 (1702) *

Emanuele d'Astorga Emanuele Gioacchino Cesare Rincon, baron of Astorga (20 March 16801757, by one report) was an Italian composer known mainly for his ''Stabat Mater''. Biography He was born on 20 March 1680Hans Volkmann, ''Emanuele d'Astorga'', Leipzig 1911, p. ...

(1707) * Vivaldi: Stabat Mater (1712) *

Domenico Scarlatti Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti, also known as Domingo or Doménico Scarlatti (26 October 1685-23 July 1757), was an Italian composer. He is classified primarily as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the deve ...

(1715) * Nicola Fago (1719) * Scarlatti: Stabat Mater (1723) *

Antonio Caldara Antonio Caldara (ca 1670 – 28 December 1736) was an Italian Baroque composer. Life Caldara was born in Venice (exact date unknown), the son of a violinist. He became a chorister at St Mark's in Venice, where he learned several instruments, ...

(~1725) *

Agostino Steffani Agostino Steffani (25 July 165412 February 1728) was an Italian ecclesiastic, diplomat and composer. Biography Steffani was born at Castelfranco Veneto on 25 July 1654. As a boy he was admitted as a chorister at San Marco, Venice. In 1667, ...

(1727) * Pergolesi: Stabat Mater (1736) *

Nicola Logroscino Nicola Bonifacio Logroscino (1698 – c.1765) was an Italian composer who is best known for his operas. Biography He was born at Bitonto (Province of Bari) in the Apulia region and was a pupil of Giovanni Veneziano and Giuliano Perugino at the ...

(1760) *

Florian Leopold Gassmann Florian Leopold Gassmann (3 May 1729 – 21 January 1774) was a German-speaking Bohemian opera composer of the transitional period between the baroque and classical eras. He was one of the principal composers of '' dramma giocoso'' immed ...

(~1765) * Haydn: Stabat Mater (1767) *

Giuseppe Tartini Giuseppe Tartini (8 April 1692 – 26 February 1770) was an Italian composer and violinist of the Baroque era born in the Republic of Venice. Tartini was a prolific composer, composing over a hundred of pieces for the violin with the majority of ...

(1769) *

Tommaso Traetta Tommaso Michele Francesco Saverio Traetta (30 March 1727 – 6 April 1779) was an Italian composer of the Neapolitan School. Along with other composers mainly in the Holy Roman Empire and France, he was responsible for certain operatic ref ...

(1770) *

Antonio Soler Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular male ...

(1775) * Boccherini: Stabat Mater (1781, 1801) *

Franz Ignaz Beck Franz Ignaz Beck (20 February 1734 – 31 December 1809) was a German violinist, composer, conductor and music teacher who spent the greater part of his life in France, where he became director of the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux. Possibly the m ...

(1782) *

Pasquale Cafaro Pasquale Cafaro (also known as Caffaro or Cafariello, 8 February 1715 or 1716 – 25 October 1787) was an Italian composer who was particularly known for his operas and the significant amount of sacred music he produced, including oratorios, ...

(1784) * Schubert: Stabat Mater in G minor (1815) and Stabat Mater in F minor (1816) * Rossini: Stabat Mater (1831–1841) *

Peter Cornelius Carl August Peter Cornelius (24 December 1824 – 26 October 1874) was a German composer, writer about music, poet and translator. Life He was born in Mainz to Carl Joseph Gerhard (1793–1843) and Friederike (1789–1867) Cornelius, actors i ...

(1849) * Liszt: part of the oratorio ''

Christus Christus may refer to: * Christ (title) People * Petrus Christus (c. 1410s – c. 1475), Dutch painter * Sir Christus (1978–2017), Finnish musician Music * ''Christus'' (Liszt), an oratorio * ''Christus'' (Mendelssohn), an unfinished oratorio ...

'' (1862–1866) * Dvořák: Stabat Mater (1876–1877) *

Laura Netzel Laura Constance Netzel ( Pistolekors; 1 March 1839 — 10 February 1927) was a Finnish-born Swedish composer, pianist, conductor and concert organizer who sometimes used the pseudonym N. Lago. She was born in Rantasalmi, Finland, and was proud of ...

(1890) *

Josef Bohuslav Foerster Josef Bohuslav Foerster (30 December 1859 – 29 May 1951) was a Czechs, Czech composer and musicologist. He is often referred to as J. B. Foerster, and his surname is sometimes spelled Förster. Life Foerster was born in Prague. His ancestors ...

: Op. 56 (1891–1892) * : Op. 50 (1893) * Verdi: movement of ''

Quattro pezzi sacri The ''Quattro pezzi sacri'' (, ''Four Sacred Pieces'') are choral works by Giuseppe Verdi. Written separately during the last decades of the composer's life and with different origins and purposes, they were nevertheless published together in 18 ...

'' (1896–1897) *

Charles Villiers Stanford Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (30 September 1852 – 29 March 1924) was an Anglo-Irish composer, music teacher, and conductor of the late Romantic music, Romantic era. Born to a well-off and highly musical family in Dublin, Stanford was ed ...

(1906) *

Toivo Kuula Toivo Timoteus Kuula (7 July 1883 – 18 May 1918) was a Finnish composer and conductor of the late-Romantic and early-modern periods, who emerged in the wake of Jean Sibelius, under whom he studied privately from 1906 to 1908. The core of Kuu ...

(1919) * George Oldroyd (1922) * Szymanowski: Stabat Mater (1925–1926) *

Johann Nepomuk David Johann Nepomuk David (30 November 1895 – 22 December 1977) was an Austrian composer. Life and career David was born in Eferding. He was a choirboy in the monastery of Sankt Florian and studied at an episcopal teacher training college in Linz, ...

(1927) *

Lennox Berkeley Sir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley (12 May 190326 December 1989) was an English composer. Biography Berkeley was born on 12 May 1903 in Oxford, England, the younger child and only son of Aline Carla (1863–1935), daughter of Sir James Char ...

(1947) *

Julia Perry Julia Amanda Perry (25 March 1924 – 24 April 1979) was an American classical composer and teacher who combined European classical and neo-classical training with her African-American heritage. Life and education Born in Lexington, Kentucky, ...

(1947) * Poulenc: Stabat Mater (1950) * Penderecki: in '' St Luke Passion'' (1963–1966) * Pärt: Stabat Mater (1985) *

Knut Nystedt Knut Nystedt (3 September 1915 – 8 December 2014) was a Norwegian orchestral and choral composer. Early life Nystedt was born in Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway, and grew up in a Christian home where hymns and classical music were an important ...

(1986) *

Amaral Vieira Amaral may refer to: *Amaral (band), a music group from Zaragoza, Spain ** ''Amaral'' (album), its debut album * Amaral (surname), a Portuguese-language surname * do Amaral, a Portuguese-language surname * Amaral (crater), a crater on Mercury * Azal ...

(1988) *

Trond Kverno Trond Hans Farner Kverno (born 20 October 1945, in Oslo) is a contemporary Norwegian composer. He received degrees in church music, music theory and choir direction from the Norwegian Academy of Music The Norwegian Academy of Music (Norwegian: '' ...

(1991) * Pawel Lukaszewski (1994) *

Vladimir Martynov Vladimir Ivanovich Martynov (Russian: Владимир Иванович Мартынов) (Moscow, 20 February 1946) is a Russian composer, known for his compositions in the concerto, orchestral music, chamber music, and choral music genres. ...

(1994) *

Salvador Brotons Salvador Brotons (born 1959 in Barcelona) is a Catalan composer, conductor, and flautist. Early life In the year of 1967, Salvador Brotons attended the Barcelona Conservatory of Music where he received titles in his three areas of studies, whic ...

(1997) *

Frank Ferko Frank Ferko (born June 18, 1950) is an American composer. Born in Barberton, Ohio, Ferko played piano from childhood, and worked as an organist and conductor in his teens. His first compositions were primarily liturgical in nature, with Lutheran ...

(1999) *

Vladimír Godár Vladimír Godár (born 16 March 1956, in Bratislava) is a Slovak classical and film score composer. He is also known for his collaboration with the Czech violinist, singer, and composer Iva Bittová. As an academic, he is a writer, editor, and ...

(2001) *

Bruno Coulais Bruno Coulais (born 13 January 1954) is a French composer, most widely known for his music on film soundtracks. Life and career Coulais was born in Paris; his father, Farth Coulais, is from Vendée, and his mother, Bernsy Coulais, was born in ...

(2005) * Jenkins: Stabat Mater (2008) *

Paul Mealor Paul Mealor OStJ CLJ OSS FRSA (born 25 November 1975) is a Welsh composer. A large proportion of his output is for chorus, both a cappella and accompanied. He came to wider notice when his motet ''Ubi Caritas et Amor'' was performed at the w ...

(2009, revised 2010) * metr.

Hilarion (Alfeyev) Hilarion (secular name Grigory Valerievich Alfeyev, russian: Григо́рий Вале́риевич Алфе́ев; 24 July 1966) is a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church and the current metropolitan of Budapest and Hungary. He is also a no ...

(2011) * Jean-Charles Gandrille (2014) Last choral work performed at

Notre-Dame de Paris Notre-Dame de Paris (; meaning "Our Lady of Paris"), referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité (an island in the Seine River), in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. The cathedral, dedicated to the ...

(2019) *

Franco Simone Francesco Luigi Simone (born 21 July 1949) is an Italian singer-songwriter, composer and television host, known as "il poeta con la chitarra" ("the poet with the guitar") for the poetical value of his lyrics. Background Born in Acquarica del C ...

(2014) *

James MacMillan Sir James Loy MacMillan, (born 16 July 1959) is a Scottish classical composer and conductor. Early life MacMillan was born at Kilwinning, in North Ayrshire, but lived in the East Ayrshire town of Cumnock until 1977. His father is James MacMi ...

(2015) *

Vache Sharafyan Vache Sharafyan ( hy, Վաչե Շարաֆյան), (born February 11, 1966 in Yerevan, Armenia) is an Armenian composer of symphonic works, chamber music, choral music and opera. His works include 2 acts opera ''King Abgar'', ballet ''Second Moon'' ...

Stabat Mater for mezzo-soprano and male choir
(2017) Most of the settings are in Latin, but

Karol Szymanowski Karol Maciej Szymanowski (; 6 October 188229 March 1937) was a Polish composer and pianist. He was a member of the modernist Young Poland movement that flourished in the late 19th and early 20th century. Szymanowski's early works show the inf ...

's and Paul Bebenek's are in Polish, although Szymanowski's may also be sung in Latin. George Oldroyd's setting is in Latin but includes an English translation for Anglican/Episcopalian use.

References

External links

Website about (now) 250 different Stabat Mater compositions: information about the composers, the music and the text. The site also includes translations of the text in 20 languages.

Several English translations

Chant performed by "Exsurge Domine" vocal ensemble.

Karol Szymanowski's "Stabat Mater"
Spanish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra. Thomas Dausgaard, conductor. Live concert. {{Authority control Marian hymns 13th-century hymns

Date

Text and translation

Musical settings

See also

References

External links