Prayerful Lenten tribute to our heavenly Mother

8th April, 2022

Each year since 2009, the musicians of St Mary’s Cathedral present their annual Lenten tribute to Our Lady with the singing of the Stabat Mater on the 5th Sunday of Lent – the Sequence of Our Lady of Sorrows which is popularly sung during Lenten devotions – Stations of the Cross.

This year, we sang an interactive Stabat Mater which featured the original chant (which people sang along with us) interspersed with short movements of various settings of this text written by composers through the centuries.  During the Mass, also, we featured other Lenten music sung by our Cathedral Choir and cantors and soloists and accompanied by a small string ensemble – including a poignant version of the congregational hymn My Loving Saviour for strings, organ, choir and congregation.

Cathedral Cantor (and one of our soloists !!) Erin Bussanich tells us about her experience: ‘Singing during key dates in the Church calendar is always very rewarding. I always feel like I can really get into the emotion of the piece and it feels really rewarding to think of the beliefs of everyone around me and how strongly that influences the music. Preparing to sing works like the Stabat Mater always involve learning what the text means and of course learning the notes. There is then the added sparkle of singing the music to people who believe in the words you are singing. The next big project I am working on is Bach’s St John’s Passion which is being performed at St Patrick’s Mount Lawley on Good Friday at 3pm and the Government House Ballroom 7pm on the 23rd April.’

Kohsei Gilkes, also one of our soloists sang with us for the first time in our Stabat Mater and also sang one of the arias for Bach’s St Matthew Passion – here are some thoughts from Kohsei:

‘I had a great time singing at St Mary’s Cathedral alongside with the strings. In terms of preparation, first, I familiarised myself with the piece by listening to recordings while looking at the score and roughly translating it. Then, I moved onto singing with just vowels to get the line and shape, then integrated the consonants after I felt that I had a good sense of how the piece flowed. I took the piece to my teacher to ask for opinions and directions to take the piece and after my lesson, I added the final touches with advice given by my teacher. I was happy mostly with how I performed during the service, but I felt I could have made my intentions and interpretation of the piece clearer. I am excited to keep learning and singing alongside the musicians at St Mary’s Cathedral.’

May our heavenly Mother watch over us as we embark on Holy Week and Easter 2022 !!