Incipit

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi composed his Stabat Mater in 1735 in a Franciscan monastery during his final weeks of life, before he died of tuberculosis on March 16, 1736 at the age of 26.

This work, one of Pergolesi's the most celebrated piece, has been used as inspiration for many composers, including J.S. Bach himself.

The piece “Incipit” is inspired by some specific fragments of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater. The original materials have been distorted, manipulated by musical algorithms and other electronic means and later resynthesised in order to adapt them to my own language. Although the intention is to create a new musical piece which moves away from the original extracts, Pergolesi's music is always in background.

This crossfade between the original musical material and the new composition defines most of the structure and rethorics of the piece.

The title “Incipit“ is a paradox of the original work, which works as an incipit itself, as the beginning of each of the twelve sequences are named by the initial words of every verse.

On the contrary, in this work the text remains mostly unintelligible until almost the end, where it appears in the from of a quotation.

Despite the sacred character of the Stabat Mater, this composition is not intended to be a religious work, but an homage to one of the most compelling compositions written on the so-called sequence.