"Stabat mater dolorosa..."
a musical sculpture to the Mater Dei
Stabat mater dolorosa
Live recording from November 2011 featuring: Martin Near, countertenor; Douglas Kelley, viola da gamba; Schola Cantorum of Boston - Fred Jodry, director; and Juventas New Music Ensemble - Lidiya Yankovskaya, artistic director and conductor.
Martin Near, countertenor
Lidiya Yankovskaya, conductor
Live recording from November 2011 featuring: Martin Near, countertenor; Douglas Kelley, viola da gamba; Schola Cantorum of Boston - Fred Jodry, director; and Juventas New Music Ensemble - Lidiya Yankovskaya, artistic director and conductor.
Live recording from November 2011 featuring: Martin Near, countertenor; Douglas Kelley, viola da gamba; Schola Cantorum of Boston - Fred Jodry, director; and Juventas New Music Ensemble - Lidiya Yankovskaya, artistic director and conductor.
Live recording from November 2011 featuring: Martin Near, countertenor; Douglas Kelley, viola da gamba; Schola Cantorum of Boston - Fred Jodry, director; and Juventas New Music Ensemble - Lidiya Yankovskaya, artistic director and conductor.
DiOrio’s setting is highly effective, in a lucid modern idiom, with Near’s sweet tone well conveying the placid denial of brutal reality... The Ave Maria is one of the most striking modern settings we have heard, and was our favorite bit of music for the evening.
Vance R. Koven, Boston Musical Intelligencer
“such was a poet and shall be and is
-- who’ll solve the depths of horror to defend
a sunbeam’s architecture with his life:
to hold a mountain’s heartbeat in his hand.”
-- e. e. cummings
“Stabat mater dolorosa…” is conceived as a literal sculpture in sound with the formal architecture of a cantata. The work does not actually set the text of the Latin sequence. Rather, it creates a monument to the image of the “sorrowful mother standing.” To this degree, it incorporates a symmetrical structure throughout, both in its five-movement design—with vocal soloist in 2, 3, and 4, and choir only in the middle movement—and in the physical setup of its players on stage. The viola da gamba is the instrumental foil of the countertenor; providing a balance of timbre and hue.
I set texts of Whitman and Dickinson for the countertenor, and the choir and soloist join together for a singing of the “Ave Maria.” These middle movements are framed by two sparse instrumental textures, using only a portion of the ensemble. Contrary to most of my music, no hint of optimism is to be found here. We become witnesses to the act of grieving over a loss.