(Lat.: ‘sorrowfully his mother stood’).
A poem used in the Roman liturgy as both a sequence and a hymn.
The poem Stabat mater dolorosa was once ascribed to Jacopone da Todi (d ?1306); though unlikely to be his, it is at any rate considered to be of 13th-century Franciscan origin. The text was apparently not intended as a sequence for the Mass, but it has the verse form of the later metrical sequence (i.e. pairs of versicles in 887 trochaic metre, with the rhyme scheme aab aab; see Sequence (i), §10). At least three other medieval texts belong to the same general type: Stabat mater speciosa, Stabat iuxta Christi crucem and Stabat virgo mater Christi. The first of these is an imitation of the Stabat mater dolorosa intended for Christmas, the second is found as a sequence as early as the Dublin Troper (c1360, GB-Cu add.710; facs. in Monumenta Musicae Sacrae, iv, Rouen, 1970) where it is set to the melody of Salvatoris mater pia; it occurs, set by John Browne, in the Eton Choirbook as a votive antiphon. Browne also set the poem Stabat virgo mater Christi, which is otherwise unknown.
Stabat mater dolorosa came into use as a sequence in the late 15th century, in connection with the new Mass of the Compassion of the Blessed Virgin Mary (though not in the English uses); the plainchant melody assigned to the sequence (LU, 1634v) appears to be of the same date, although its melodic elements can be found in earlier sequences. It was removed from the liturgy by the Council of Trent (1543–63) but revived by Pope Benedict XIII in 1727 for use on the two feasts of the Seven Sorrows (the Friday in the fifth week of Lent and the third Sunday of September, later 15 September). The use of the Stabat mater as an Office hymn on the former occasion dates from the same time; in the Roman Breviary it was divided into the following sections: ‘Stabat mater’ (Vespers), ‘Sancta mater istud agas’ (Matins) and ‘Virgo virginum praeclara’ (Lauds). Stäblein (1956) gave four hymn melodies from 17th- and 18th-century sources; the Liber usualis melody (p.1424) seems to be a late 18th-century version resembling two of these. It was well established in this form by the end of the century; it appears with a bass in Motetts or Antiphons (1792) by Samuel Webbe (ii), and from there has passed into modern hymnals.
The text (with some variants) was set as a votive antiphon in the 15th century by such English composers as John Browne, William Cornysh (?ii), Richard Davy and Robert Hunt, the first three settings being in the Eton Choirbook (GB-WRec 178). The work by John Browne is indeed one of the great masterpieces of its period. Other settings before 1700 include those by Innocentius Dammonis, Josquin des Prez, Gaffurius, Gaspar van Weerbeke, Gregor Aichinger, Palestrina, Lassus, Agostino Steffani and Alessandro Scarlatti. The setting by Dammonis is a strophic four-part laude published by Petrucci in 1508. Josquin’s five-part setting is based on similar material, which has led Reese (ReeseMR, p.253) to conjecture a ‘lost’ melody, and uses the tenor of Binchois’ Comme femme desconfortée as a tenor cantus firmus. Weerbeke’s simple and moving five-voice setting uses a version of the responsory Vidit speciosam as cantus firmus. Only one of the three settings of Stabat mater included in Haberl’s edition of Palestrina’s works is likely to be authentic; this is the celebrated eight-part work, remarkable for its sensitive declamation, rhythmic fluidity, harmonic expressiveness and subtle use of varied textures within a double-chorus framework. The Stabat mater by Lassus is an eight-part work added at the end of his second book of four-part Sacrae cantiones (1585).
The stile antico exerted its influence on polyphonic settings of the Stabat mater well into the 18th century, especially in Rome. Domenico Scarlatti's ten-part setting, probably composed between 1715 and 1719 while he was maestro of the Cappella Giulia, follows the best traditions of Roman choral writing, though with a decidedly modern feeling for harmony and tonality. Settings with orchestral accompaniment in which choruses alternate with solo arias and duets are more typical of 18th-century practice. A good example is Caldara's impressive setting, which adds to the standard vocal and orchestral forces of SATB soloists, chorus, strings and continuo the sepulchral tones of two trombones. They usually merely double the altos and tenors of the chorus, but in the tenor solo ‘Tui nati vulnerati’ they are given independent parts. Italian composers normally imposed some kind of tonal unity on the Stabat mater by beginning and ending in the same key and by pursuing a logical course through a series of related keys for the rest of the work (treating it much like a chamber cantata). Caldara reinforced his return to the home key by recalling the opening theme in the short fugal passage (‘Fac, ut animae donetur paradisi gloria’) which ends the work.
Outside Rome the sequence was sometimes set for solo voices only, with instrumental accompaniment. Pergolesi's setting, completed shortly before his death in 1736, was evidently intended to replace Alessandro Scarlatti's, which had been performed annually at Naples during Lent for many years. Both works are for soprano, alto, two violins and continuo and both are influenced by the secular cantata and the chamber duet. Scarlatti's setting is the more substantial, falling into 18 sections of which five are duets. Pergolesi's rather shorter composition achieved immediate popularity and appeared in print many times during the 18th century, often extensively rearranged. John Walsh (ii) published an edition in London in 1749, and 12 years later the Walsh firm brought out An Ode of Mr Pope's Adapted to the Principal Airs of the Hymn Stabat Mater Compos'd by Signor Pergolesi. An edition more representative of the ‘improvements’ effected by later hands is J.A. Hiller's of 1776, described on the title-page as ‘improved in harmony, with added parts for oboes and flutes and arranged for four voices’.
The Stabat mater did not figure prominently among the church compositions of the Viennese school. Mozart's early setting (k33c, 1766) is lost, and Haydn's (1767) is not representative of his best work. Schubert's setting (d175, 1815) uses only the first 12 lines of the poem, which are then repeated to slightly different music. Like his setting of Klopstock's German paraphrase (d383, 1816), it is accompanied by an orchestra which includes three trombones. In the 19th century the sequence was often composed for concert rather than liturgical use. Rossini's setting, completed in 1841, vacillates between impressive choral sections and frankly operatic arias that too often show little regard for the meaning of the text. It was first performed, significantly enough, not in a church but at the Salle Ventadour, Paris, in 1842, when it was received with tremendous enthusiasm. It has remained one of the most popular settings of the text in the modern repertory. Dvořák expanded his Stabat mater (1877) to the proportions of an oratorio by rather tiresome repetition of both words and music and the use of unremittingly slow tempos. Liszt's setting, part of his monumental oratorio Christus (1862–7), is of particular interest for its structural use of part of the plainchant melody, heard at the opening and again at various points later in the work. Using a large orchestra, Liszt succeeded in combining grandiose gestures with passages of restrained, austere devotion.
Liszt's is among the most successful 19th-century settings, but the greatest is undoubtedly Verdi's, published in 1898 as the second of his Quattro pezzi sacri. Commentaries on it have tended to overstress the influence that Verdi's study of Palestrina had on the sacred works of his last years. It is more significant that in the Stabat mater Verdi was able to achieve a deep sincerity of utterance (as he did also in the Requiem) without renouncing a style perfected through years of experience in the opera house. As in Falstaff and Otello, the expressive points are made with the utmost economy and there is no textual repetition. The result is probably the shortest setting of the Stabat mater composed in the 19th century, and Verdi's example was followed by most 20th-century composers, although their orchestral requirements often rule out performance in church. Karol Szymanowski's (1925–6), Lennox Berkeley's (1947) and Poulenc's (1950) are outstanding settings. Another is Penderecki's (1962) for three unaccompanied choirs, which uses only six of the poem's 20 stanzas; the composer later incorporated it into his St Luke Passion. Bitter listed over 100 settings of the Stabat mater composed between 1700 and 1883, including those of Charpentier, Agostino Steffani, Tartini, Boccherini and Gounod. Among the many written since then may be mentioned those of Dohnányi, Kodály, Persichetti, Stanford and Virgil Thomson.
HarrisonMMB
C.H. Bitter: Eine Studie zum Stabat Mater (Leipzig, 1883)
J. Kayser: Beiträge zur Geschichte und Erklärung der ältesten Kirchenhymnen, ii (Paderborn, 1886), esp. 110–92
J. Julian: A Dictionary of Hymnology (London, 1892, 2/1907, repr. 1915)
C. Carbone: L'inno del dolore mariano (Rome, 1911)
E. Schmitz: Das Madonnenideal in der Tonkunst (Leipzig, 1920)
B. Staäblein, ed.: Hymnen I, MMMA, i (1956)
F. Haberl: ‘Stabat mater’, Musica sacra, lxxvi (1956), 33
A. Robertson: Requiem: Music of Mourning and Consolation (London, 1967), chap.11
A.T. Sharp: A Descriptive Catalog of Selected Published Eighteenth- through Twentieth-Century Stabat Mater Settings for Mixed Voices, with a Discussion of the History of the Text (diss., U. of Iowa, 1978)
D. Faravelli: ‘Stabat mater: poesia e musica’, RIMS, iv (1983), 9–43
J. Blume: Geschichte der mehrstimmigen Stabat-mater-Vertonungen (Munich, 1992)
P.-G. Nohl: ‘Das Stabat mater’, Musik und Kirche, lxvii (1997), 97–106
JOHN CALDWELL (1), MALCOLM BOYD (2)