Pergolesi - stabat mater - Classical Loop - 0.26 - baroque, voice - Stabat Mater (1736) for male soprano, male alto, and orchestra is Pergolesi's best known sacred work. Stabat Mater is a thirteenth century Roman Catholic sequence. Its title is an abbreviation of the first line, Stabat mater dolorosa ("The sorrowful mother stood"). The hymn, one of the most powerful and immediate of extant medieval poems, meditates on the suffering of Mary, Jesus Christ's mother, during his crucifixion. It is sung at the liturgy on the memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows.