About the composer
Humphrey Clucas was born in 1941 in Cambridge, England. As a composer, he is self-taught.
As an undergraduate, he wrote a set of Responses, which made him well known within the
Church of England. His real career as a composer started much later, and has resulted in
large and small choral works, for concert and liturgical use, as well as organ music and
instrumental pieces. He is a Lay Vicar, and member of the choir, with Westminster Abbey.
| Date | 1992 |
| Performers | Soprano, choir and string quartet. |
| Length | 6.26 minutes |
| Particulars | Clucas says about this work: "I see the Stabat Mater as
a very beautiful, and just slightly decadent, lyrical poem, and I wanted to set it in a
single sweep. The tempo is unchanging throughout, though within this tempo there are two
different sorts of music. The first eight stanzas are sung against a four-bar string
passacaglia theme; when this has become almost too relentless, the texture changes, and
the vocal line - now featuring the soloist - becomes more lyrical. Stanzas 14-20 repeat
this shape on a smaller scale." In my own opinion Clucas has written a little gem, in which the choir and the string quartet blend together beautifully. |
| Textual variations | The "Analecta"-version of the text is used, with
following changes: - Stanza 4, line 2: Not "Et tremebat cum videbat" but "Pia Mater, dum videbat" - Stanza 6, line 2: Not "Piam Mater contemplari" but "Christi Mater contemplari" - Stanza 16, line 2: Not "Passionis eius sortem" but "Passionis fac consortem" Also, the final "Amen" is left out. |
| CD | Upbeat Classics URCD142: Humphrey Clucas, Crucifixus |
| About this CD | Dedicated to the work of Clucas. Recorded at PATS, University of Surrey, in 1998 I bought this CD on the Internet, Berkshire Record Outlet, 2001 |
| Orchestra | Chameleon Atrs String Quartet |
| Choir | Laudibus |
| Conductor | Michael Brewer |
| Soloists | Bryony Lang, soprano |
| Other works | Crucifixus Requiem Sinfonia sacra Shakespeare Songs Songs of Farewell |
E-mail:
stabatmater@dds.nl