Giovanni Batista Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater: The Ancient Agora of Athens

The medieval hymn Stabat Mater is one of very few religious hymns that have survived and remain in liturgical use today. One of the most popular for its simplicity and immediacy of feeling, this is a hymn that has been a source of inspiration for many composers throughout the ages.

A few words about the project

Stabat Mater (Dolorosa)/Mother stood (sad) is a hymn commemorating the pain of the Virgin during the Holy Week when she mourns Jesus under the Cross. It is based on an ecclesiastical poem of the 13th century that is probably the work of the Franciscan monk Giacopone da Todi (1230-1306), while according to another version it is the work of Saint Bonaventure (1221-1274).

The Stabat Mater by the Italian composer Giovanni Pergolesi has acquired mythical dimensions similar to the Requiem by Mozart. Pergolesi was a composer, violinist and organist who studied at the Naples Conservatory and in his short life managed to compose 6 operas and 2 concertos for flute and strings. Pergolesi composed the Stabat Mater during the last 2 weeks of his life locked up in a monastery in Naples sick with tuberculosis. Legend has him writing the last notes of the work on his deathbed, moments before he succumbed to the disease at the age of 26 on March 16, 1736.

Characteristic of Pergolesi’s work is the combination of tenderness of expression and perfection of the melodic line. It is written for two female voices, strings and basso continuo. Pergolesi limited the soloists to female voices because he wanted to let the women express maternal pain.