Giovanni Battista Pergolesi 344

by William Hart McNichols

Title

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi 344

Artist

William Hart McNichols

Medium

Painting - Acrylic On Wood

Description

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710 + 1736) : A Terrible Beauty

“O Blessed Mary, whoever loves you honors God; whoever serves you pleases God; whoever invokes your holy name with a pure heart will infallibly receive the object of his petition… As breathing is not only a sign but even a cause of life, so the name of Mary, which is constantly found on the lips of God’s servants, both proves that they are truly alive, and at the same time causes and preserves their life, and gives them every succor.”
St Bernard of Clairvaux

The Stabat Mater is a 13th century hymn to the Blessed Mother by the Franciscan Friar Jacapone da Todi. The poem comes from the first line, “Stabat Mater Dolorosa” which is “the Sorrowful Mother was standing.”
In 1739, Charles de Brosses, while touring Italy praised Pergolesi’s “delightful inspiration, simple and natural. No one can compose with greater ease, grace or taste. His Stabat Mater is considered to be the masterpiece of Latin church music. Few pieces of music are more admired for their profound knowledge of harmony.
Pergolesi wrote his exquisite masterpiece over two years with long intervals and then bouts of inspired work. Legend has it that he was still putting final touches on the piece as he was dying, in March of 1736.

I first heard significant parts of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater sung by two young women in the Canadian film, “Jesus of Montreal” sometime in 1990. Virginie Pronovost in a film review says, “The main reason why this film is brilliant is that one doesn’t need to be a Christian or believe in any gods or religions to appreciate it. I’m the living proof ! It’s not a religious film like the ones people watch during Easter. It’s just a film using one of the oldest stories ever told to build around it a rich development. Jesus de Montreal is a film with a lot of sensibility, symbolism (the connection between Daniel Coulombe and Jesus himself become at one point quite strong), and undeniable humor. It successfully explores the emotional extremes, the tragic and the comic, resulting in captivating viewing… it’s also a film giving us a beautiful lesson of friendship and compassion…”

I might be imagining this but it really seems to me that since my open heart surgery 6 June 2012, I can hear things in music (and in life itself) that I have never heard or seen before. Everything is somehow wider, brighter and I half expect to find out they never closed my heart, because I also feel a lot more about the daily tragic events we all try to stay sane, by keeping them at a distance, whenever possible. It’s what people who have always told me about LSD and other mind altering drugs. I was a seminarian all during the immense wave of psychedelic experiences my peers were having. This was a good thing because given my intense curiosity I know I’d have looked into them all, thank God I was too scared to try because I lived in a residence for seminarians.
In working on our book, “All My Eyes See,” with Chris Pramuk, as we talked I practically re- lived every stage of my life, and though I was trying to keep a distance, it was as if
there is no time; theologians say there is no time with God.
I experienced all the joys and wounds of my life without any protection or magical plexiglass, bulletproof screen to guard me from them. It’s been 11 years since my heart surgery, and I’m going to have to learn to accept that this is my life now, it’s not going to go away. How to understand this obvious Grace ? I just don’t know yet. I know many of you who feel the same way are asking that same question.

When my dear friend Bob began to die, about 4 years ago, I rediscovered Stabat Mater. Bob is still alive as I write this, and seems to be dying inch by inch. I’ve now listened to at least 12 cd versions of the Pergolesi masterpiece. And each one has something to recommend about it. My favorite is the tragically frantic version recorded at Versailles with two counter tenors. Because they are both male it gives the piece a very different almost otherworldly feel. But the emotions one imagines, of Pergolesi dying so young at age 26, come through like no other version, which feels right to me as if Pergolesi is sonically going through the classic 5 Stages of Death as you listen carefully.
And, as the Canadian film review says, you don’t have to have any overt attachment to any religious tradition to appreciate it. I do think though, that if you have a relationship of love with the Blessed Mother you are capable of hearing even more.

“Stabat Mater pour deux castrats…The brilliant sopranist Samuel Marino born in Caracas, brings all the light of South America to a voice that is totally youthful, almost timeless, and which undoubtedly reflects the angelic nature of some of the castrati of the Vatican, the Royal Chapel of Naples … or the one in Versailles !For this concert in Versailles, he sings in duet with Filippo Mineccia, who has become in a few years a seductive singer on the Baroque scene, and particularly Versailles where he has shone at the opera as well as in the Chapel. Here are two exceptional performers for a sensitive and virtuoso programme.”

Having spent 4 years listening to different versions of this poignant masterpiece, I knew I had to honor Pergolesi and have the Sorrowful Mother in this painting, deferring to her servant.
Like all music, we all have different tastes and loves so you may listen to something and not like it at all. This is not about trying to sell Pergolesi - he certainly doesn’t need it; both Bach and Mozart were dazzled by his genius.
But I love trying to convey in paint and words my heroines and hero’s; those who have kept me going for over 70 years.

“ O thou Mother, fount of love,
touch my spirit from above,
make my heart with thine accord.

Make me feel as thou hast felt,
make my soul to glow and melt
with the love of Christ the Lord…”
Friar Jacapone da Todi (1228 - 1306)

Fr William Hart McNichols
Our Lady of Sorrows 💔 15 September 2024

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September 6th, 2024

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