This is a touching and heartfelt orchestral vocal cantata on the subject of Mary, mother of Christ. Although chromatic, it is a tonal work and readily accessible to average classical vocal fans.

This cantata is an outstanding example of Frank Martin's style in its last phase. The style evolved from his early love of Bach and the resulting preference for well-conceived counterpoint. Added to that were a mastery of short, fluid rhythmic patterns that stemmed from the Eurhythmics movement (a system of therapy, exercise, and music studies), and Schoenberg's twelve-tone method. Martin retained tonality and a sense that the notes were not equal in a given piece, but that some, pointing to a central tonality, were more important than others. Otherwise, he used several procedures that he derived from Schoenberg.

One of Martin's champions was the violinist Wolfgang Schneiderhan, whose wife was the noted soprano Irmgard Seefried. Martin became close friends with the musical couple, and wrote this vocal-orchestral work for Seefried.

Martin was the son of a Calvinist minister from Geneva, and traced his ancestry to Huguenots expelled from France. Although his instrumental music rarely evokes a sense of mystery or devotion—in fact, it tends to be serious and intellectual while retaining rhythmic excitement—Martin composed a substantial quantity of vocal music based on events concerning the life of Christ. These include the major orchestral/vocal works Nativity, Golgotha, and Pilate. Lasting a bit over 18 minutes, Maria Triptychon is a setting of three well-known texts relating to the life of the Virgin Mary.

The three movements of the triptych represent two key events in the life of Mary—the Annunciation and her Son's Crucifixion. The Annunciation movements are ultimately drawn form the New Testament. In this work they are the Annunciation itself, with the soprano taking the voice of the Angel that announces to Mary that she will bear the Son of God. Rather than using the familiar Latin Ave Maria, Martin uses Martin Luther's German rendering of the event, "Gegrüsset seist du." The mood is hushed, reverent, but troubled: Mary questions how this can be and is troubled at her own selection.

The heart of the triptych—taking up half of its time—is the central panel, a setting of the Magnificat (again in Luther's version, "Meine Seele erhebet den Herrn"). This rises to an intense feeling of jubilation and overwhelming awe as Mary understands and accepts her mission.

The final movement is the Stabat Mater, a Latin poem rather than a Biblical text, describing the anguish of the mother witnessing her Son's torturous execution. The movement begins with isolated chords that stab in their dissonance; the mood is quiet grief and turns into resignation and dark stillness at the end.

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