Description
Welcome to my Kingdom Marketplace space! Here you can purchase digital downloads of my music and best help support me. My name is Raya, and I sing and produce sacred and traditional music under the name of “Like the Hart”, inspired by psalm 42.
This listing is for a Digital Download of my album Mater Dolorosa, a collection of hauntingly beautiful sacred hymns for the season of Lent, and in honour of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary. There is a place for all emotion in song, and in these pieces of music, one can enter into the mystery of sorrow, but find beauty therein and help soothe and process one’s own griefs throughout life. At least, that’s how I’ve come to think of it myself.
This digital download consists of a .zip folder containing fifteen MP3 files. Once you’ve downloaded the .zip file, you’ll need to right hand click on it and choose “extract to…” to save it to a new accessible folder on your computer.
The track listing is as follows:
1. Introit – Stabat Mater (2:22)
2. Kyrie – Mass IV (2:38)
3. Gradual – Dolorosa (3:11)
4. Tract – Stabat Mater (2:56)
5. Alleluia – Stabat Sancte Maria (2:03)
6. Sequence – Stabat Mater Dolorosa (6:20)
7. Offertory – Recordare (1:35)
8. O Quot Undis Lacrimarum (3:02)
9. Sanctus – Mass IV (1:34)
10. Agnus Dei – Mass IV (1:13)
11. Communion – Felices Sensus (1:06)
12. O Vos Omnes (3:01)
13. Stabat Mater Dolorosa (5:24)
14. Media Vita (5:56)
15. Parce Domine (4:51)
Let me tell you about all of these track listings, because they mean a lot to me! Most of them are taken by the traditional Latin Mass service, which has been sung for hundreds of years.
1. Introit – Stabant – So, in Gregorian Chant, there are particular pieces of music meant to be sung for a traditional Latin Mass ceremony. This would be the first part, which reads “The Mother of Jesus stood at the foot of the cross, with Mary Cleophas and Salome, and Mary Magdalen… This is followed by a verse from scripture: Woman, behold your Son, said Jesus: and to the disciple also: Behold your mother.” and then with a Glory be prayer.
2. Kyrie – Mass IV – also during this Mass are certain unchanging prayers to the Lord: the Kyrie Eleison is Greek for Lord, have mercy, and this is said three times, followed by three Christe Eleisons, followed by another three Kyrie eleisons. There are many musical renditions of this piece, and in Gregorian Chant they are numbered to distinguish between them all. This Kyrie is from Mass 4 (IV).
3. Gradual – another piece of chant taken from the Mass for Our Lady’s Seven Sorrows, this one reads Sorrowful and full of tears are you, Virgin Mary, standing at the foot of the Cross of the Lord Jesus your Redeemer Son. Virgin, Mother of God, whom the whole world cannot contain, bears the suffering of the cross, the author of life having become man…
5. Tract – Stabat Mater – A tract is sung at a Mass during Lent, when no Alleluia is heard for the whole of those forty days. The words of this tract are: Holy Mary stood, the queen of Heaven, and the Lady of the world, at the foot of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, sorrowful. O all ye, who travel along the way, watch and see if there is any sorrow like unto my sorrow (from the Lamentations of Jeremiah).
5. Alleluia – Stabat Mater – the most sorrowful “Alleluia” you ever heard! I tried to sing this piece with a kind of sorrowful indignation at the seeming outrage crying in the lyrics: Holy Mary stood, the Queen of Heaven, and the Lady of the world, at the foot of the Lord Jesus Christ, sorrowful…
6. Sequence – Stabat Mater Dolorosa – a sequence is like a poem or hymn in Gregorian Chant. There is a tone that is popular of these lyrics, commonly sung in English – “At the Cross her station keeping”, but this is a different version.
7. Offertory – Recordare – reads “Remember, Virgin Mother, in the sight of God, to promise to do us good and avert His indignation from us.”
8. O Quot Undis Lacrimarum – literally – “O what waves of tears!”, this is a hymn that honours Mary’s suffering while Jesus was undergoing His Passion.
9. Sanctus – Mass IV – this is another piece of prayer that never changes from Mass to Mass, and the setting is “4”. The words go as such – Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest!
10. Agnus Dei – Mass IV – this unchanging prayer goes like so: Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us…
11. Communion – Felices Sensus – is sung traditionally during Communion of the Faithful in Mass, and goes like this: O happy thought: that the blessed Virgin Mary, who without undergoing death, still merited the Martyr’s crown under the cross of the Lord. Tradition holds that seeing her Son undergoing such agony under the Cross, and being able to do nothing but unite her own Will to His, Mary earned a kind of “white” martyrdom that was even more painful than the shedding of her own blood!
12. O Vos Omnes – this is a polyphonic motet by Tomas Luis de Victoria (one of my favourite composers!) It’s taken from one of the Lamentations of Jeremiah – O all ye that pass by the way, wait and look at me, and see if there is any sorrow like unto my sorrow. It moved me to my very core when I heard this piece for the same time, and always comes to my mind during Lent.
13. Stabat Mater Dolorosa – this is a piece I composed myself, and it mixes the traditional and popular “Stabat Mater” chant tune with my own little polyphonic refrain. I tried to illustrate a kind of soaring sympathy with our Lady in the high notes, and an almost beautiful “wailing” at the sorrows of Jesus, which then quiets down at the end and enters into prayerful mystery again… The ending reads this: Pia Mater Christi, esto mater mihi. Ora pro me” I had help from a Latin schola with this one! It means, “Loving Mother of Christ, be a mother to me! Pray for me”.
14. Media Vita – In the midst of life we are in death; of whom may we seek help but you, O Lord, who for our offences are justly displeased? This eerie but moving chant calls on the most Holy One to rescue us from the peril of sin and sorrow, and I rather think it sounds like a child calling up to his father and asking for help, and to be “picked up”, especially when it mentions how, “our fathers called on you, and you heard their prayer!!” — So hear mine, too!
15. Parce Domine – means “Spare, O Lord…” and is a moving piece of chant traditionally sung in procession by monks during the Lenten season. In a world so cold and dark, I often turn to this hymn to offer everything up to the Lord and ask Him for His mercy on us all down here, and to take care of everything.
I’m very excited to be able to share this music with you all! Your support means so much to me. Feel free to check out my YouTube channel to get a taste of my music before subscribing, and find more information about me, along with more pieces of chant there:
