In the 9th century, the Council of Trent reduced to four the use of mnemonics to make the singing of long melismas in “Alleluia” easier.That’s why “Missale Romanum” (1570) only quote “Lauda Sion,” “Dies irae,” “Victimae paschal” and “Veni Sancte Spiritus” sequences. This is only in 1727 that “Stabat Mater” sequence became a part of the Roman liturgy. It is sung on September 15th for Our Lady of Sorrows. The same text was used for the song sung by the faithful to the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday. This melody was also used by Franz Liszt for “Christus” and then “Via Crucis.” The text is attributed to Jacopone da Todi. The melody could have been written at the same time by a contemporary. Many composers wrote “Stabat Matter,” the first seems to be Josquin des Prés’ (a five voice motet) based on a secular song by Gilles Binchois. Kodaly wrote a short polyphony with several verses. He only used the first three verses of three lines. It is neither based on the original hymn nor on the sequence by Dom Fonteine. He wrote an expressive polyphonic piece of work with no difficulty.
