Stabat Mater Dolorosa (“The Mother stood in woeful wise”)
Translation: Historic Roman Catholic Translation • 1599AD
Tune: “Stabat Mater” • 887
In the 1599AD Preface, Richard Verstegan says: “Notwithstanding the difficulty, these hymns have been so turned into English meter that they may be sung unto the same tunes in English that they bear in Latin.” For this particular translation, the harmonic rhythm must be that of Solesmes Abbey, generally known as the “Classical Solesmes Method.” See the following: (1) Daily Hymn Book (Westminster, 1949) p. 64, by Henri Potiron (d. 1972), Maître de Chapelle de la Basilique du Sacré Coeur et Professeur a l’Institut Grégorien; (2) Liber Cantualis Comitante Organo (Solesmes, 1981) p. 37, by Abbé Ferdinand Portier; (3) Accompaniment to the Music of Holy Week (Gregorian Institute of America, 1957) p. 83, by Dr. Eugene Lapierre, organist at Saint-Alphonse-d’Youville in Montréal.
