Clive Osgood: Stabat Mater

This setting of the Stabat Mater, a 13th century hymn to the Virgin Mary, is written for soprano, tenor and bass soloists as well as chorus, strings and piano. The work was composed in 2009 and divides the original twenty stanzas of the text into ten movements. It describes the grief-stricken Mother of Jesus standing at the foot of cross, on which he is suffering an agonising death.

The overall shape of these movements provides something of an arch structure, with similar music at the beginning and end. Similarly, a slower variation of the second movement is used for the penultimate movement.