Matthew Martin
About the composer
Matthew Martin was born in the UK in 1976. He studied at Magdalen College, Oxford and the Royal Academy of Music. He is one of UK’s leading choral composers and he is frequently commissioned to write for prominent ensembles, most recently the Gabrieli Consort, the choirs of Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s Cathedral. He won the Liturgical category in the 2013 British Composer Awards, and in 2014 a disc of his choral music was recorded by the choir of Magdalen College, Oxford, for release on the Opus Arte label. He currently teaches harmony and counterpoint at Oxford University. (CD booklet)
About the Stabat Mater
| Date: | 2014 |
| Performers: | Mixed choir and semi-choir |
| Length: | 10.21 minutes |
| Particulars: | Matthew Martin's Stabat Mater composition has been called: A Passiontide Triptych. He mixes the Latin verses with English ones. The work has three movements 1: Silence, Love, 2: Grief, Patience and 3: Passion, Destiny. Each part uses two or three Latin verses. Only seven Stanzas has have been used: 1, 2, 3, 18, 5, 6 and 20. Not only is there English and Latin, but there is also a semi chorus (sung by Kirsty Hopkins, Sally Dunkley, Mark Dobell and Ben Davies) to contrast and interleave with the main chorus. |
| Textual variations: | Martin uses only seven stanzas and he combines the Latin of the Stabat Mater text with newly written English verse by Robert Willis, an English poet-priest currently dean of Canterbury. This the English text: II In Grief disabled by the appalling sense of loss |
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Information about the recording
| CD1: | COR16127 Spirit, Strength & Sorrow |
| More info: | This CD, Spirit, Strength & Sorrow is the result of the Sixteen’s third major commissioning collaboration and features three new Stabat Mater compositions, by Alissa Firsova, Tõnu Kõrvits and Matthew Martin. |
| Choir: | The Sixteen |
| Conductor: | Harry Christophers |
| Other works: | Plainsong Stabat Mater |
| Code: | 2018 KOR-01 |
