Stabat Mater (Vivaldi)

Stabat Mater for solo alto and orchestra, RV 621, is a composition by the Italian baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi on one of the Sorrows of Mary. It was premiered in Brescia in 1712.

Instrumentation
The work is scored for violins I & II, violas, solo alto or countertenor and basso continuo.

Movements
Vivaldi's Stabat Mater only uses the first ten stanzas of the hymn. The music is keyed in F minor, and is generally slow and melancholy, with allegro only being used once in the Amen, and all the other movements not going faster than andante. Movements 4, 5, and 6 are identical to the first three musically. The composition is structured into nine movements as follows:
 * 1) Stabat mater dolorosa
 * 2) Cujus animam gementem
 * 3) O quam tristis et afflicta
 * 4) Quis est homo
 * 5) Quis non posset contristari
 * 6) Pro peccatis suae gentis
 * 7) Eia mater, fons amoris
 * 8) Fac ut ardeat cor meum
 * 9) Amen

In popular culture
A piano transcription of this work was featured prominently in the 1999 film The Talented Mr. Ripley.