David Dalle
Thursday April 1st, 2021 with David Dalle
Passion music: two contemporary settings of a mother's grief.

Today we delve into the incredible musical tradition of Good Friday and Passion music with two contemporary settings of the 13th century Latin hymn Stabat Mater Dolorosa; a very popular text for setting to music, as it so beautifully describes the unimaginable grief of a bereaved mother. We will begin with American composer Jacob Cooper's 2009 work, which is based on the opening movement from the famous 1736 "Stabat Mater" by Pergolesi. The original work by Pergolesi is scored for Soprano and Alto voices with strings and basso continuo. It makes frequent use of harmonic suspensions, where one voice moves a step away from the other creating dissonance which is then resolved, causing harmonic tension which moves the music along and greatly heightens the emotional impact of the music. The first movement is usually performed in under four minutes, but Jacob Cooper stretches out the dissonant suspensions in a nearly 30 minute lamentation, exquisite and breathtaking. Though this work was composed in 2009, it was released in 2020 and I believe has become one of the most poignant works for mourning during this pandemic. The other "Stabat Mater" is Avro Part's 1985 setting. He sets the whole text in this starkly instrumented and gorgeous work for choir, violin, and two viola da gambas.