Stabat Mater (Scarlatti)

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The "Deposizione", mid-15th century, by Napolitan Colantonio (Naples, Museo di Capodimonte). Deposizione, Colantonio 001.jpg
The "Deposizione", mid-15th century, by Napolitan Colantonio (Naples, Museo di Capodimonte).

Stabat Mater by Alessandro Scarlatti is a religious musical work composed for two voices (soprano/alto), two violins and basso continuo, in 1724, on a commission from the Order of Friars Minor, the "Knights of the Virgin of Sorrows" of the Church of San Luigi in Naples [1] for Lent

Contents

The text, the Stabat Mater sequence, is a 13th-century liturgical text meditating on the suffering of Mary, mother of Christ.

Considered outdated by those who had ordered it, Scarlatti's work was replaced in 1736 by the famous Stabat Mater by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi.

Scarlatti set the Stabat Mater three times. There is another manuscript of a three-part Stabat Mater, dated 1715 and kept in Naples [2] [3] (Stabat Mater [II]) [4] and a third work, composed for four voices, dated 1723, but now lost [3] (Stabat Mater [III]).

Description

First page of the Stabat Mater in a copy from the 18th century, kept in Florence at the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini Stabat Mater (I) - Alessandro Scarlatti (Ms. Naples).png
First page of the Stabat Mater in a copy from the 18th century, kept in Florence at the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini

The Stabat Mater consists of eighteen pieces that can be grouped into four parts, starting and ending with a duet. [5]

Scarlatti inverts verses 10 and 11 and groups verse 13 with verse 14, and verse 15 also plays verses 16 and 17 in a recitative. [6] That is eighteen numbers for twenty verses.

Scarlatti's late composition impresses by its extraordinary musical richness, variety of forms, chromatic freedom and flexibility of expression. Thus the work is one of his most popular religious works today. [7]

A performance takes about forty minutes.

Manuscript

Discography

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References

  1. Cantagrel 1989, p. 2.
  2. Naples, Archivio Musicale della Communità Oratoriana dei Padri Filippini.
  3. 1 2 Poensgen 2004, p. 65, Vol. 2.
  4. Poensgen 2004, pp. 33–34, Vol. 2.
  5. Poensgen 2004, p. 221, Vol. 1.
  6. Cantagrel 1989, p. 3.
  7. Poensgen 2004, p. 223, Vol. 1.
  8. Poensgen 2004, p. 33, Vol. 2.
  9. Véronique Diestchy on BBC Music/
  10. Alain Zaepffel on Discogs
  11. Ensemble Gradiva on Classical Archives
  12. When it was released, this record was distinguished with a "Choc" by Le Monde de la musique magazine and 4 keys in Diapason .
  13. Gemma Bertagnolli short biography on Bach Cantatas Website
  14. When it was released, this record was awarded a "10" by Laurent Campellone in the Répertoire des disques compacts  [ fr ] N° 118, November 1998 p. 60–61.
  15. When it was released, this disc was distinguished with a Golden Diapason N° 469, April 2000 and a "recommended" in Classica .

Bibliography