Stabat Mater

(P.77) is a musical setting of the sequence, composed by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi in 1736. Composed in the final weeks of Pergolesi's life, it is scored for soprano and alto soloists, violin I and II, viola and . The autograph manuscript of the work is preserved in the Benedictine Abbey of Monte Cassino. Background Many pieces which were said to have been composed by Pergolesi have been misattributed; the is definitely by Pergolesi, as a manuscript in his handwriting has been preserved. The work was composed for a Neapolitan confraternity, the , which had also commissioned a Stabat Mater from Alessandro Scarlatti. Pergolesi composed it during his final illness from tuberculosis in a Franciscan monastery in Pozzuoli, along with a setting, and, as it is said, finished it right before he died. Reception