Ernő Dohnányi bequeathed to posterity two masterpieces in the realm of church music: the grandiose Szeged Mass (1930) and the unique-sounding Stabat Mater (1952-53, premièred in 1956). Having lived in Florida since 1949, he received a commission from the head choirmaster of the Denton Civic Boy’s Choir in Texas to write a large-scale choral work. His choice of text – which can be explained by his recent personal hardships and family tragedies, fell on the medieval poem by Jacopone da Todi: Stabat Mater dolorosa (“The sorrowful mother was standing…”). The work was written for a six-part double choir – which could be a boy’s choir or, as the composer instructed, a female choir – joined by soprano, mezzo-soprano and alto soloists and orchestra.  Although it is post-Romantic in style, its opening theme might have been influenced by J.S. Bach’s cantata Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen and the Crucifixus part of his Mass in B minor.  The gushing, and later on euphorically radiant, closing segment “paradisi gloria” is imbued – just like his Cantus vitae based on text by Imre Madach and his Second Symphony – with the loftiness and faith that was characteristic of the composer’s later work.