Happy Ash Wednesday! I always have a hard time registering every year that it is Lent already, here is something to make it easier to get into a Lenten mood. I sang this piece, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, last spring when I was a member of the women’s choir at my college (I’m in a mixed choir this year). I love the beautiful melody, and it remains my favorite piece of choral music I have heard to this day. The haunting, mournful music complements the words of the passiontide hymn, and I love the soprano and alto harmony throughout the piece. The words are:
Stabat mater dolorosa, juxta crucem lacrimosa, dum pendebat filius.
At the cross, her station keeping, stood the mournful mother weeping.
I am singing alto in the back row in this video, but I’m so short you can only see the top of my head!
I like the harmony, too. Sarah, you have very refined classical taste.