Page 229 - FINAL_The Sixteen Coverage Book 40th Anniversary Year

1 November 2019

A ‘Stabat Mater’ for the 21st Century,

Colored by a Composer’s Faith

James MacMillan’s setting of the centuries-old poem will have its American
premiere at Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival.

James MacMillan, a prolific composer of choral music, wrote a “Stabat Mater” that will have
its American premiere at Lincoln Center.Credit...Liam Henderson for The New York Times

By Ryan Ebright
• Nov. 1, 2019

For centuries, Franciscan monks have led pilgrims along the Via Dolorosa, or “path
of sorrows,” that Christ is believed to have walked to his crucifixion. This devotional
practice, mirrored in churches worldwide in the Lenten Stations of the Cross,
encourages reflection and penitence.

And for centuries, composers from Palestrina to Arvo Pärt have trod this path
musically, through settings of the Passion narratives, Christ’s final words and the
anonymous 13th-century poem “Stabat mater dolorosa,” which meditates on the
suffering of Mary, the mother of Jesus, as she stands at the cross.

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