Mixed choir and trebles with string orchestra

The Stabat Mater is easy to listen to, as it is in a tonal idiom. The conductor of the first performance, Richard Stangroom, described it as follows: "... the overall construction and integration of the subtle orchestral texture with the simpler choral writing is very impressive, but, above all, it is the integrity and expressive power of the music which remains in the memory"

The text of the "Vatican"-version is used, but after the 19th stanza an "Amen" is added, and after the 20th stanza "Alleluia". The Stabat Mater is extended with some additional texts. The piece starts with part of the Gradual from the Mass for the Seven Sorrows of the B.V.M., a text that is also used by the Brazilian composer João de Deus de Castro Lobo in his Stabat Mater:

I. Dolorosa et lacrimabilis es, Virgo Maria, stans iuxta Crucem Domini Jesu Filii tui Redemptoris
(Sad and to be pitied art thou, O Virgin Mary, standing by the Cross of the Redeemer, the Lord Jesus thy Son).

After the 8th stanza the text of the Ave verum has been added.:
II. Ave verum corpus, natum de Maria Virgine. Vere passum, immolutum in cruce pro homine. Cuius latus perforatum unda fluxit sanquine. Esto nobis praegustatum in mortis examine.
(All hail, true body, of the blessed Virgin born, Which in anguish to redeem us did suffer upon the cross; From whose side, when pearced by a spear, there came forth both water and blood. Be to us at our last hour the source of consolation.

The work is concluded by the Offertorium of the same Mass:
III. Recordare Virgo Mater Dei, dum steteris in conspectu Domini, ut loquaris pro nobis bona: et ut avertat indignationem suam a nobis
(Be mindful, O Virgin Mother of God, when standing in the sight of the Lord, to speak good things for us: that He may turn away His anger from us)