Stabat Mater by Prof. Byron Adams

The text of the Stabat Mater consists of twenty stanzas in Latin, each stanza consisting of three t terse lines. After an anguished introduction, the soprano enters tentatively, as if grief-stricken; the music gradually unfolds into a lament. Each of the score’s major divisions is separated by an elegiac meditation featuring the English horn The second, violent, section evokes the chaos, cruelty, and terror that swirled around the Crucifixion. The third part begins with the words, “Eia, Mater fons amoris," in which the singer expresses deep empathy for the Virgin Mary's grief and love. The next major section, a series of petitions seeking to share in the Virgin Mary's sorrow, is cast as a chaconne: the music unfolds inexorably over a repeated harmonic progression. The epilogue begins with a quotation of the plainsong melody "Pange lingua gloriosum" as a harbinger of the Ressurection. After this allusion, flowing and serene music expresses the hope of attaining “paradisi gloria” after death.
My Stabat Mater was composed especially for the gifted soprano Ellen Leslie and her husband, the superb composer, organist, and conductor Eric Choate. I have dedicated this score to the blessed memory of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, O.C.D. (1891-1942), who perished at Auschwitz.