We mark Good Friday in music, words and prayer at St Bride's in our Three Hours' Devotion which begins with a performance of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater. This performance was recorded live and is made available because this year our doors are closed due to the coronavirus.
Soloists: Claire Seaton - soprano; Charlie Morris - alto
Organist: Robert Jones
This is the best-known setting of the 13th century poem based upon the prophecy of Simeon that a sword shall pierce the heart of Christ's mother Mary (Luke 2: 35) and compassionately describes the sorrowing Mary as she keeps station at the foot of the cross.
The poet, debatably Jacapone da Todi, a thirteenth century Franciscan monk, prays to Mary to let him share her grief and to let him suffer with Jesus and for her intercession. In the last stanza the poet prays directly to God for a place in paradise.
Pergolesi’s setting was written in about 1735 and was first printed in London in 1749. It became the most frequently published single work of the 18th century.
Pergolesi (1710-1736) composed it at the end of his life which was spent at a Franciscan monastery in Pozzuoli and it was written as a replacement for the Allesandro Scarlatti setting in use at the church of Maria dei Sette Dolori in Naples.
