Ensemble SATB with Tenor and Baritone Soloists, 2 Percussionists, Piano, and Timpani

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Duration 9:00

Completed 2010

Text Jacopone de Todi, trans. Fr. Edward Caswall;
Sabine Baring-Gould

Cost $4 (minimum order 10), Parts - $30

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Stabat Mater, while certainly a critique of the horrors of war, is, more importantly, an exposé of the two texts included. The text of the hymn Onward, Christian Soldiers is the topic of some theological debate as to whether or not its true meaning is to promote violence. But, it is conceivable that the immediate impact of the text, especially when set with aggressive music, unites the principles of Christianity with violence. The text of the Stabat Mater is a Catholic sequence, originally in Latin, that expresses Mary’s grief at the cross. While this text is specifically about Mary and Jesus, it also carries a universal sense of the anguish of a mother losing her child; a tragic, albeit frequent, atrocity of war. This piece is not intended to blame Christians for war, but rather to point out the irony that two such opposed texts and mindsets can exist in what is supposed to be a united ideal.