Stabat Mater

In order to express the pain of the mother of Jesus on the cross, Juli Sandaran composes this cantata formed by eight different choral variations, one per verse. In each of the chorales, the melody of the cry of Jesus’ mother stands out like a leitmotiv. Each verse of the Stabat Mater in Latin is intermixed with instrumental variations that precede the chorale like highly varied musical interludes. The choir sing a cappella or rather accompanied by the organ or by the quartet, always in a choral format. It includes simple chorales for three voices to ones for as many as eight, some with only female, male or solo voice in archaic, static format, harmoniously jazzy.
A quartet for string and the organ are the compulsory instruments that alternate and accompany the choir, imbued with rhythm and brazen harmony. The organ brightens the piece, endowing certain variations with colour and tone. Many of the musical interludes are rhythmically enriched and sometimes offset with a traditional tone. The leitmotiv of the Mother of God’s cry travels from one instrument to the next, sometimes in a contrapuntal style. We find it in the introduction, the middle and the end of the piece. You can often hear dry, repeated chords that we can imagine as whiplashes while the second violin rings out a slow, painful cry. The death of Jesus is as bitter as the vinegar the Roman soldiers gave him to quench his thirst. This is the context of the piece that Sandaran musically illustrates with reverence.

 

Montserrat Bonet, choir conductor