STABAT MATER DOLOROSA - SATB choir & organ

A setting of the first verse of the 13th-century hymn portraying Mary at the foot of the cross. The opening passages are restrained and intimate, and increasingly restless; we are witnessing the internal torment of a grieving mother, rather than the Queen of Heaven so often portrayed in choral music. The music is punctuated with silence - “Dum… pendebat Filius” - as her eyes are drawn upwards to her lifeless son.

• PDF download