The Jesuits were expelled from the Spanish colonies in South America in 1767, leaving behind a remarkable musical legacy that was buried for over two hundred years. But the music did not disappear completely. Thanks to the Chiquitos people of Bolivia, the music was played and preserved throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.
In 1985, Swiss architect Hans Roth discovered 9,000 of these musical manuscripts and in 1990 UNESCO declared the churches of the Chiquitos a “patrimony of humanity”. Dr. Gustavo Leone of Loyola University Chicago's Department of Fine and Performing Arts has painstakingly retrieved and restored several of these incredible manuscripts, preserving a rare and invaluable treasure of the Jesuit and Catholic heritage.
This is the first publication of this anonymous composition, collected at the Music Archives of the Chiquitos, in Concepción, Bolivia. This composition, Stabat Mater, is for SATB choir and continuo. This score is available for performance by downloading it from this site.
Funded in part by a faculty research grant from the Joan and Bill Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage at Loyola University Chicago.
Leone, Gustavo, "Stabat Mater" (2011). Department of Fine & Performing Arts: Faculty Publications and Other Works. 1.
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Music of the Jesuit Missions of the Chiquitos event poster
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High-resolution image of Stabat Mater manuscript
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Small image of Stabat Mater manuscript