Pergolesi Stabat Mater

Many aspects of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s life seem relatively normal when it comes to composers of the Baroque era. He was prolific, died young, and his music became very famous only after his death. However, all three of these facts are complicated by the unique circumstances of Pergolesi’s life.

He was somewhat prolific, but dozens of pieces that were once attributed to him are no longer considered authentic, including much of the music that Igor Stravinsky made famous in his ballet Pulcinella. Pergolesi did not just die young; he died remarkably young, at the age of twenty-six, from tuberculosis. And the idea that he became famous only after his death actually made him unusual among composers of his time, when popularity during one’s lifetime was the primary mark of success. Most composers quickly fell into obscurity after they died.

In Pergolesi’s case, the opposite occurred. There was a massive surge of interest in his music immediately after his death, which in some ways contributed to the museum-like atmosphere that classical music has today. Pergolesi was ahead of his time in many ways, and that brings us to the piece we are going to talk about today, his Stabat Mater.

We will discuss what the Stabat Mater is in more detail later, but simply put, it is a musical setting of the poem Stabat Mater Dolorosa, which, in a rather clumsy translation, means “the sorrowful mother stood.” This thirteenth-century Christian hymn and poem focuses on the Virgin Mary’s suffering as she witnesses the crucifixion of Jesus. The text has been set to music by many composers, but Pergolesi’s version, surprisingly given his relative obscurity today, has endured in a way that many settings by more famous composers have not.

Today, on this Patreon-sponsored episode, we will learn a bit about Pergolesi’s life, or at least what we know of it, and talk through this Baroque-era masterpiece. Join us!