STABAT MATER by Ivo Antognini SSAATTBB - Digital Sheet Music

SKU: A0.1776658

STABAT MATER by Ivo Antognini



Composed for SATB (div.) a cappella, this piece is loosely inspired by the melody of a well-known Stabat Mater performed during Holy Week in Mendrisio, a town in southern Switzerland. It is traditionally sung by the congregation in two alternating groups: the first stanza by the tenors and basses, and the second echoed in the sopranos and altos.






This antiphonal singing continues until the final stanza, where the two groups join together. The mournful melody depicts the Virgin Mother’s immense pain in seeing her Son suffer on the cross.

The first of three movements begins with the original theme presented in a single voice. The tune is set in minor key, whereas the popular version sung at Holy Week employs a major tonality. This alteration gives the piece a somber and dramatic quality from its very first bars, while still maintaining the beautiful melody of the familiar Stabat Mater.

From time to time, we find overt references to Gregorian chant on the same text composed of 20 stanzas, each with three verses, attributed to the poet and Franciscan friar Jacopone da Todi.

The second movement introduces a brief rhythmic theme that soon dissipates to make way again for the melody of the popular Stabat Mater, which at times is heard in a sorrowful musical context, while at other times as a delicate angelic song. This is sung by the treble voices alone.

The opening of the final movement Virgo Virginum unabashedly harkens to the venerated O magnum mysterium of Victoria before gradually returning to the melodic elements explored in the first two movements. Following one of the most dramatic passages - a fortissimo E minor chord on the word "Cruce"- the popular Stabat Mater theme reappears, at first still painful and melancholic. However, the color soon changes and the beautiful melody is then accompanied in E major by rich, tranquil, and enveloping harmonies that continue until the end, as if to signify hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The world premiere of Antognini's Stabat Mater took place in the Church of Saints Cosma and Damiano in Mendrisio, masterfully performed by the renowned Coro della Radiotelevisione Svizzera under the direction of Maestro Diego Fasolis.