Plainchant Tropes for Stations of the Cross
Op.100a
for Voices in two parts a cappella
This arrangement of the plainchant setting of the Stabat mater in fourteen stanzas was designed for use in conjunction with a complete performance of the organ cycle Stations of the Cross. It was first performed in 2014 by the choristers of Lincoln Cathedral with organist Clare Innes-Hopkins.
Programme notes
The plainchant line – slightly altered by the decorative use of musica ficta – is answered phrase by phrase at the fifth above or fourth below. The mode of each of the fourteen stanzas is set a semitone higher than the one before – tracking the identical semitonal rise of the movements of the Stations of the Cross.
