Female choir and orchestra

The Stabat Mater is part of the score for a movie "Il sorriso del grande Tentatore" (the smile of the great temptator). It is about a group of people in a secluded house, all struggling with their feelings of sin and guilt, and guided by a nun obsessed by the need for Catholic perfection and holyness. When a writer moves into the house, who is convinced of the need for complete spiritual freedom, a battle of spirits follows.
The music is mostly very staccato; each syllable being pronounced explosively, as short as possible, in pace with the thumping music. Through this the stanza is twice sung in a slightly distorted way, like singing under water.

Only the first stanza of the poem is used. The soundtrack is divided into six parts, with the exception of the third part each referring to one of the official sequenzes of the Catholic church (Veni sancte spiritus, Victimae paschalis laudes, Lauda Sion, Stabat Mater and Dies Iriae). The third part is based on Beethoven's choral from the ninth symphony. The texts of these sequenzes are mixed in a kind of collage, so that within the Stabat Mater the sentence Veni sancte spiritus is used frequenty, and also the sentence from the Responsorium Domine quando veneris. In the Dies Irae we hear not only these sentences, but also the text from the Stabat Mater repeated.

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