Movements/SectionsMov'ts/Sec's | 1 |
---|---|
Composition Year | 1914-1915 (original; lost), 1917- (unfinished revision) |
Genre Categories | Stabat Mater; Religious works; Masses; |
Work Title | Stabat mater |
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Alternative. Title | |
Composer | Kuula, Toivo |
Opus/Catalogue NumberOp./Cat. No. | Op.25 |
I-Catalogue NumberI-Cat. No. | ITK 83 |
Key | F minor / E major |
Movements/SectionsMov'ts/Sec's | 1 |
Year/Date of CompositionY/D of Comp. | 1914-1915 (original; lost), 1917- (unfinished revision) |
First Performance. | 1919-03-27 in Helsinki (completion by L. Madetoja)
|
First Publication. | 1933 - Helsinki: Wikstedt (choral part only) 1951 - Helsinki: Kuula Society (vocal score arr. E. Roiha based on Madetoja's version, TKS #1) |
Librettist | Traditional, attributed to Jacopo dei Benedetti ("Jacopone da Todi", 1233-1306) but this is doubtful. |
Language | Latin |
Composer Time PeriodComp. Period | Romantic |
Piece Style | Early 20th century |
Instrumentation | mixed chorus (SATB), orchestra |
Extra Information | The original version was finished during the spring 1915 and the complete manuscript score of 75 pages was soon examined by the critic E. Katila (his evaluation published May 30th 1915 in the newspaper Uusi Suometar). For unknown reasons the composer later abandoned the original and it has unfortunately been lost - or at least the final 25 pages of the score. Kuula started work on a revision around 1917 but did not live to finish it. Only the choral voices and some very sketchy orchestration were found of a "grand fugue", the material of which dates back to the composer's studies in 1909 in Italy. The fugue starts at around page 50 in a manuscript of 71 pages. During the autumn 1918 Leevi Madetoja (1887-1947) completed the cantata for a memorial concert which was scheduled to the spring of 1919. The extent of Madetoja's rewriting was unclear until 2008 when the biographer Juhani Koivisto after a careful research noticed that Madetoja had completed only the "grand fugue" and all the music before that is entirely Kuula's own, probably from the original version. |
There's also an organ part which can be played instead of some orchestral instruments.
However, Kuula does not always indicate clearly where the instruments replaced by the organ should remain silent.
Thus, the organ version is ambiguous and not directly usable.