Stabat Mater (Pergolesi)
1736 composition by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
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Through Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The autograph manuscript of the work is preserved in the Benedictine Abbey of Monte Cassino.
Background
Many pieces which were said to have been composed by Pergolesi have been misattributed; the Stabat Mater is definitely by Pergolesi, as a manuscript in his handwriting has been preserved. The work was composed for a Neapolitan confraternity, the Cavalieri della Vergine dei Dolori di San Luigi al Palazzo, which had also commissioned a Stabat Mater from Alessandro Scarlatti. Pergolesi composed it during his final illness from tuberculosis in a Franciscan monastery in Pozzuoli, along with a Salve Regina setting, and finished it shortly before he died.
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Reception
The Stabat Mater is one of Pergolesi's most celebrated sacred works, achieving great popularity after the composer's death. Jean-Jacques Rousseau showed appreciation for the work, praising the opening movement as "the most perfect and touching duet to come from the pen of any composer". Many composers adapted the work, including Giovanni Paisiello, who extended the orchestral accompaniment, and Joseph Eybler, who added a choir to replace some of the duets. Bach's Tilge, Höchster, meine Sünden is a parody cantata based on Pergolesi's composition.
The work was not without its detractors. Padre Martini criticised its light, operatic style in 1774, and believed it was too similar to Pergolesi's comic opera La serva padrona to adequately deliver the pathos of the text.
Structure
The work is divided into twelve movements, each named after the incipit of the text. Much of the music is based on Pergolesi's earlier setting of the Dies irae sequence.
- "Stabat Mater Dolorosa", Grave, F minor, common time; duet
- "Cujus animam gementem", Andante amoroso, C minor, 3/8; soprano aria
- "O quam tristis et afflicta", Larghetto, G minor, common time; duet
- "Quae moerebat et dolebat", Allegro, E-flat major, 2/4; alto aria
- "Quis est homo", Largo, C minor, common time; duet
- —"Pro peccatis suae gentis", Allegro, C minor, 6/8
- "Vidit suum dulcem natum", Tempo giusto, F minor, common time; soprano aria
- "Eja mater fons amoris", Andantino, C minor, 3/8; alto aria
- "Fac ut ardeat cor meum", Allegro, G minor, cut common time; duet
- "Sancta mater, istud agas", Tempo giusto, E-flat major, common time; duet
- "Fac ut portem Christi mortem", Largo, G minor, common time; alto aria
- "Inflammatus et accensus", Allegro ma non troppo, B-flat major, common time; duet
- "Quando corpus morietur", Largo assai, F minor, common time; duet
- —"Amen..." Presto assai, F minor, cut common time