A few years ago, it was my dear grandson Guido who persuaded me to start a real YouTube channel, to promote the Stabat Mater collection. So, in January 2020 we uploaded the first video: the Red Brotherhood in Ceriana (Italy) going through the narrow streets and little alleys of the medieval village while singing Stabat …
Translators, editors, proofreaders wanted!
In March 2022 the Ultimate Stabat Mater Website Foundation published the book, in Dutch, Stabat Mater Dolorosa – a journey through seven ages of music. It covers the story of our Ultimate Stabat Mater Website which started as a personal passion of Hans van der Velden in 1997. Now, 25 years later, we are an …
Unique Stabat Mater Music Calendar 2023
Our latest project is a unique Stabat Mater calendar for composers, musicians and music lovers. Listen to a Stabat Mater composition through a QR code every month! Twelve recordings of the Stabat Mater in various musical styles, such as early music, baroque, classical, jazz and many more. The calendar has photos of paintings, sculptures and …
Johann W. von Goethe and Stabat Mater
Almost everyone of us must have heard about the German poet Johann Wolfgang Goethe and his famous work Faust, I suppose. But who did actually know that Goethe in this tragic play, refers to the Stabat Mater text? In Faust he describes the following – medieval – scene: an old stone city wall. Gretchen, a …
Stabat Mater: long and short
People who are familiar with Stabat Mater generally know that Antonin Dvořák composed a Stabat Mater of ninety minutes, the longest Stabat Mater ever. But did you know that the shortest Stabat Mater on our list has only 2:04 minutes? The composer is Charles Haenni from Switzerland and an important part of his work is …
New: Partridge and Lutz
We just added two modern Stabat Mater compositions: Martin Lutz (2007) and Philip Partridge (2015). …Listening to Lutz Stabat you almost forget that the story is about the dreadful suffering and death of Jesus on the cross seen from his mother’s supremely painful point of view. For me it is a “lovely” and intimate composition …
New Stabat Mater by Richard Prior
…The Ultimate Stabat Mater website is a wonderful resource for scholars, composers, musicians, academics, theologians, lovers of music who appreciate the subject matter – the list is endless! I applaud your husband’s legacy and your own great efforts to continue the initiative… That’s what Richard Prior wrote to us when he contacted us about his …
Latest additions: Sharafyan, Näther and Argüello
We just added three Stabat Mater composers to our Ultimate Stabat Mater Website. The first one by Vache Sharafyan from Armenia, has been composed for male choir and mezzo-soprano. Mr. Sharafyan was kind enough to share two excerpts of his Stabat Mater with us. His Stabat is dark and intensely sad, the male choir is …
Website about Jacopone da Todi
The monk Jacopone da Todi (ca. 1228-1306) is named as one of the most probable poets of the Stabat Mater poem. In 2021 I visited Mr. Claudio Peri in the city of Todi in Umbria, Italy. Mr. Claudio Peri is an emeritus Professor of Food Science from the University of Milan. He and his wife …
Farewell dialogue Mary and Jesus
O mater, dulcis mater, habeo quid dicam, O mother, dear mother, I have something to tell you. Thus the dialogue begins of Jesus on the cross with his mother Mary. It has been set to music by Wenzel Gunther Jacob, 1685 – 1734. A renowned composer, not only in his own country. Mr. Joop Volp, organ player …
