a musical journey through the ages...

Tartini

Giuseppe Tartini

About the composer

Giuseppe Tartini was born in 1692 in Pirano, Italy. He studied the violin in the monastry of Assisi and at the age of 19 became first violin player of the orchestra of the Capello del Santo in Padua. Beside being a virtuoso violin player he also was a great teacher. In 1728 he founded a school for violin instruction. He wrote several treatises on violin playing and music theory, in which he describes his discovery of the different tone phenomenon. Tartini composed about 400 works, a.o 120 violin concertos and 40 violin sonatas, and a number of vocal sacred works. Apart from a visit to Prague he stayed his whole life in Padua, where he died in 1770.

About the Stabat Mater

Date: 1769
Performers:

Male choir and organ (CD 1), 2 sopranos, 2 altos and continuo (CD 2)

Length: 6.50 minutes
Particulars:

CD 1: The score of this composition comes from an old booklet 'Secunda anthologia vocalis (Liturgica)', published in Turin, containing three-voiced sacred vocal works . All stanzas has been set to music, but for the even stanzas the melody of the Gregorian chant is used. The odd stanzas all have slightly different melodies, probably variations on a single melody. The simplicity of the score is in complete contrast to the virtuoso works Tartini is famous for, but an attack he had in 1768 maybe accounts for that.
The interpretation of the performers is very different from the score. Only the score of the first stanza is sung, using it for two stanzas, then come two stanzas with the chant melody, then the Tartini melody again, and so on, alternating with every two stanzas. The final "Amen" is left out, too.
CD 2: This interpretation is close to the score. The odd numbered stanzas are sung by three soloists, while the second countertenor sings the even numbered stanzas, using the chant melody, with the exception of stanzas 12 and 16, that are not sung, but where the instruments (organ and cello) repeat the melody of the first stanza. Surprisingly, stanzas 18 and 19 are interchanged.

Textual variations:

CD 1: All stanzas are sung, but - surprisingly - in a Dutch translation. It is a rhyming translation, clearly based on the "Analecta"-version, from an unknown poet.
CD 2: The text of the "Vatican"-version is used, with the exception of stanzas 12 and 16, that are replaced by instrumental intermezzi.

Colour bar:

Colourbar CD 1
lassus

 

 

Colourbar CD 2
tartini2

Information about the recording

CD1: Stemra MRK020320: Dipsô
More info:

The music on this disc is sung and played by student priests of the Seminary of St.Jan at ‘s Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands. The CD can be bought there, and the proceeds are used for the maintenance of the Seminary. Recorded in February and March 2000.

Orchestra: Student Priests of St.Jan Seminary.
Other works:

Music for Maundy:
Gregorian Chant: Nos autem + Hoc Corpus + Pange lingua
John Goss: Psalm 42
Music for Good Friday:
Gregorian Chant: Christus factus est + Crucem tuam
Igor Strawinsky: Ave Maria
Music for Easter:
Gregorian Chant: Resurrexi + Pascha nostrum + Victimae paschali
Hubert Parry: Psalm 30
Music for Pentocost:
Gregorian chant: Veni Sancte Spiritus + Salve Regina
William Lawes: Psalm 104
Bortmansky (adaptation): the Beatitudes
Rimsly-Korsakow (adaptation): Our Father

Code: TAR-01
CD2: Cypres Records CYP1639: Stabat Mater – Abos – Tartini – Gasparini
More info:

The CD contains three Stabat Mater compositions from about 1760, which have in common that almost the same soloist voices have been used. It was recorded at the Abbaye Royale de Fontevraud, December 2002.

Orchestra: Stradivarius
Conductor: Daniel Cuiller
Soloists:

Isabelle Poulenard and Isabelle Desrochers, sopranos
Martin Oro and Bruno Le Levreur, countertenors

Other works:

Girolamo Abos: Stabat Mater
Quirino Gasparini: Stabat Mater

Code: GASP-01

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