music

i just acquired some music written by the composer pergolesi. pergolesi, born in 1725, and was sort of the poster-boy for italian comedy opera. but he did compose various religious or sacred peices, one of which i have now. it is called stabet mater. while he did not write the content of this peice, for it was a hymn written during the mideival period, attributed to innocent III and jacopone da todi, he did put it to music and joined a long line of other composers who have likewise created their own renditions of this poem.

the hymn, one of the most powerful and immediate of extant medieval poems, meditates on the suffering of Mary, Jesus Christ's mother, during his crucifixion.