This week, we move to a composer who's name is more known, Chrales Villiers Stanford, a vanguard of the British musical scene, but one who's compositions have faded away gradually. Stanford's orchestral compositions and operas are well forgotten today (though we'll be sure to feature some of those here in upcoming months!), but his vocal works survived him well. Unfortunately, these two continue to fall out of favor, including his Stabat Mater, which we look at today.

The Stabat Mater was Stanford's work that held up most in the repertoire after his death - to this day, it is still commonly heard in religious settings in the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, outside of the United Kingdom it is rarely heard - and virtually extinct in concert settings. This engaging work was lauded by Vaughan Williams for it's beauty.

Beginning with hushed rising chords in the winds, Stanford answers with a beautiful sustained chord in the strings - a pattern that repeats three times before moving to an Allegro Vivace with a rumbling bass line that sets the stage for a quick build up amongst the full orchestra upon a theme introduced by the horns.

As the tumultuous open subsides, the celli introduce a beautiful singing line, quickly taken over by the violins. This is accompanied by beautiful harmonies and a continuous feeling of movement in the accompanying instruments, continuing the movement from before. We build to a peak, where the brass instruments introduce a sharp motif above the movement, before calming back to the gently rolling movement that preceded, with the celli returning with their lyrical and beautiful melody, joined by the brass.

As the prelude comes to a close, we move to the vocalists, with a solo soprano opening the movement with a melody line that brings to mind chant. She is joined after two measures by a limited instrumental accompaniment, then joined by a solo tenor for a very short echo, then soloists from the other sections and the full chorus with a rising line that is reminiscent of the opening of the prelude. As the soloists sing "Filius", they are accompanied by a beautiful answering melody in the oboe. The orchestra turmoil builds quickly as the chorus sings "Per transivit gladius," which translates loosely as "Deeply pierced by the sword." This clearly shows an answer to those who criticized Stanford's music as lacking in drama!

The opening choral section ends in a quiet moment, before a short and beautiful instrumental section concludes the work, with the solo soprano singing one last "Stabat Mater" in the same notes as her opening chat to conclude the movement. This leads into a dramatic instrumental intermezzo. The short intermezzo moves attaca into the Eja Mater, introduced by the full chorus, before the soprano solo joins, accompanied by the strings with a beautiful cello line. The tenor solo is introduced by the English Horn, then the remaining soloists join. The quartet sings together "valide" in harmonies that could easily have come from a Verdi opera, before the full chorus rejoins.

The triumphant finale begins with a fanfare, joined by the women of the chorus, followed by the solo alto and the celli. Again, we see masterful weaving of the soli lines and the chorus - writing which shows a true mastery of composition for the human voice. As we move to the Con moto Maestoso e pesante, the men of the chorus sing with a harmonic style that reminds me of the Soviet nationalistic style to come in the works for film to come 3-4 decades after this was written.

After a dramatic climax, Stanford brings us to a close starting at the Adagio solenne, with lush choral writing that includes masterful counterpoint within the chorus and interplay with the soli voices. A beautifully written amen in the chorus builds slowly amongst the sections, followed by a short vocal section of "paradisi gloria", another amen, another "paradisi gloria", then one final amen introduced by the soli voices, joined by the chorus.

Limited recordings of the work have been made. Currently, the only recording we're able to find available is by the Leeds Philharmonic Chorus and BBC Philharmonic, with Richard Hickox, an appropriate recording to listen to as the work was originally written for the 1907 Leeds Festival.