The Stabat Mater is a 13th-century Catholic hymn to Mary conveying her grief and suffering as the mother of Jesus Christ during his crucifixion. It is a hymn for Good Friday attributed to the 13th century poet Jacopone da Todi (1230-1306). The piece is about weeping; technically a G-flat at the opening constantly searching for resolution, which it achieves only at the end with its cadence in a major key. Listen for the rich low C at its centre – the tonal balance to G-flat. 

This Stabat Mater ends the first dramatic part of Standford’s award winning Easter oratorio Christus Requiem, written for the Guildhall School of Music and City of London in 1973. This was the work Standford selected to open his choral retrospective recorded by the BBC Singers in the UK, in 2010.