Suffering With Joy

Dvorák’s Stabat Mater

March 8, 2010

Many great composers have set to music the beautiful Stabat Mater hymn Catholics are so familiar with because of the Stations of the Cross.  Probably none had a greater appreciation of the grief of Our Lady than Antonin Dvorák.  On September 19th, 1875 his infant daughter Josefa died. On August 13, 1877 his eleven-month-old daughter died in a household accident.  Within a month his son Otakar contracted small pox and died on September 8, the composer’s 36th birthday.

By November 13, 1877 the composer had completed the work, but its first performance was not done until December 23, 1880. The piece brought Dvorák such popularity he was besieged for autographs wherever he went, a sign that he wrote in a universal language everyone can understand.  I highly recommend this very moving work for Lenten listening if you are into classical music.

Dvorak: Stabat Mater is available in my Amazon store or you can click on the link here to order. You can hear excerpts from it at the Amazon page.

About the Stabat Mater: this well known 13th century text was most likely composed by the great Franciscan, Jacapone da Todi  or otherwise known, Jacapone Benedetti (1228-1306).

Tags: music