Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710 – 1736) was an Italian composer, violinist and organist born at Iesi, Pergolesi and studied music there under a local musician, Francesco Santini. In 1725 he travelled to Naples where he studied under Gaetano Greco and Francesco Feo among others. He spent most of his brief life working for aristocratic patrons like the Colonna principe di Stigliano, and duca Marzio IV Maddaloni Carafa.

Stabat Mater is a musical setting of the Stabat Mater sequence, composed by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi in 1736. Composed in the final weeks of Pergolesi's life, it is scored for soprano and alto soloists, violin I and II, viola and basso continuo (cello and organ).

Many pieces which were said to have been composed by Pergolesi have been misattributed; the Stabat Mater is definitely by Pergolesi, as a manuscript in his handwriting has been preserved. The work was composed for an Neapolitan confraternity, the Confraternità dei Cavalieri di San Luigi di Palazzo, which had also commissioned a Stabat Mater from Alessandro Scarlatti. Pergolesi composed it during his final illness from tuberculosis in a Franciscan monastery in Pozzuoli, along with a Salve Regina setting.

"Quis est Homo qui non Fleret" (What man would not weep) is the 5th movement and is transcribed for Woodwinds (Oboe & Bb Clarinet) and String Ensemble (Violins (2), Viola, Cello, Bass & Contrabass).