mater Unigeniti

I'm a big one on tracking artistic interpretation: Gould's Goldberg recordings, for instance, or say, Ray Charles' cover of "Yesterday". Penderecki offers an interesting opportunity to track an artist dealing with the same theme through completely different methods.

His setting of the Stabat Mater was one of his early attempts to return to "traditional" forms. The grief of the Pieta which is expressed in the prayer is the same emotion Penderecki retrofitted on his seminal string experiment from 1960. Originally, he was going to name it by its length, a la Cage, but upon hearing it, decided the anguish deserved a dedication, so he titled the piece, Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima for 52 stringed instruments.

Where the choral piece references constructs like D major and triads, the string piece is a hybrid of serialism and aleatoric processes. However, it's fascinating how fluidly both convey the unmistakable tone of the old prayer:

Stabat Mater dolorosa
iuxta crucem lacrimosa,
dum pendebat Filius.

(The grieving Mother stood
beside the cross weeping
where her Son was hanging.)