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PERGOLESI (or PERGOLESE), GIOVANNI BA...

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 144 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PERGOLESI (or PERGOLESE), GIOVANNI BATTISTA (1710-1736) , See also:Italian musical composer, was See also:born at See also:Jesi near See also:Ancona on the 3rd of See also:January 1710, and after studying See also:music undei 'See also:local masters until he was sixteen was sent by a See also:noble See also:patron to See also:complete his See also:education at See also:Naples, where he became a See also:pupil of See also:Greco, See also:Durante and Feo for See also:composition and of Domenico de Matteis for the See also:violin. His earliest known composition was a sacred See also:drama, La Conversione di S. Guglielmo d'Aquitania, between the acts of which was given the comic intermezzo Il See also:Maestro di musica. These See also:works were performed in 1731, probably by See also:fellow pupils, at the monastery of St Agnello See also:Maggiore. Through the See also:influence of the See also:prince of Stigliano and other patrons, including the See also:duke of See also:Maddaloni, Pergolesi was commissioned to write an See also:opera for the See also:court See also:theatre, and in the See also:winter of 1731 successfully produced La Sallustia, followed in 1732 by Ricimero, which was a failure. Both operas had comic intermezzi, but in neither See also:case were they successful. After this disappointment he abandoned the theatre for a See also:time and wrote See also:thirty sonatas for two violins and See also:bass for the prince of Stigliano. He was also invited to compose a See also:mass on the occasion of the See also:earthquake of 1731, and a second mass, also for two choirs and See also:orchestra, is said to have been praised by See also:Leo. In See also:September 1732 he returned to the See also:stage with a comic opera in Neapolitan See also:dialect, Lo Frate inammorato, which was well received; and in 1733 he produced a serious opera, Il Prigionier, to which the celebrated Serva padrona furnished the intermezzi. There seems, however, no ground for supposing that this See also:work made any noticeable difference to the composer's already established reputation as a writer of comic opera. About this time (1733–1734) Pergolesi entered the service of the duke of Maddaloni, and accompanied him to See also:Rome, where he conducted a mass for five voices and orchestra in the See also:church of St Lorenzo in See also:Lucina (May 1734). There is no See also:foundation for the statement that he was appointed maestro di cappella at the See also:Holy See also:House of See also:Loreto; he was, in fact, organist of the royal See also:chapel at Naples in 1735.

The complete failure of L'Olimpiade at Rome in January 1735 is said to have broken his See also:

health, and determined him to abandon the theatre for the Church; this statement is, however, incompatible with the fact that his comic opera Il Flaminio was produced in Naples in September of the same See also:year with undoubted success. His See also:ill health was more probably due to his notorious profligacy. In 1736 he was sent by the duke of Maddaloni to the Capuchin monastery at See also:Pozzuoli, the See also:air of the See also:place being considered beneficial to cases of See also:consumption. Here he is commonly supposed to have written the celebrated Stabat Mater; See also:Paisiello, however, stated that this work was written soon after he See also:left the Conservatorio dei poveri di Gesit Cristo in 1729. We may at any See also:rate safely attribute to this See also:period the See also:Scherzo facto ai Cappuccini di Pozzuoli, a musical jest of a somewhat indecent nature. He died on the 17th of See also:March 1736, and was buried in the See also:cathedral of Pozzuoli. Pergolesi's See also:posthumous reputation has been exaggerated beyond all See also:reason. This was due partly to his See also:early See also:death, and largely to the success of La Serva padrona when performed by the Bouffons I/aliens at See also:Paris in 1752. Charming as this little piece undoubtedly is, it is inferior both for music and for See also:humour to Pergolesi's three-See also:act comic operas in dialect, which are remembered now only by the air " Ogni pena pia spietata " from Lo Prate inantmorato. As a composer of sacred music Pergolesi is effective, but essentially See also:commonplace and superficial, and the frivolous See also:style of the Stabat Mater was rightly censured by Paisiello and Padre See also:Martini. His best quality is a certain sentimental See also:charm, which is very conspicuous in the See also:cantata L'Orfeo and in the genuinely beautiful duets " Se cerca, se See also:dice" and " Ne' giorni tuoi felici " of the serious opera L'Olimpiade; the latter number was transferred unaltered from his early sacred drama S. Guglielmo, and we can thus see that his natural See also:talent underwent hardly any development during the five years of his musical activity.

On the whole, however, Pergolesi is in no way See also:

superior to his contemporaries of the same school, and it is purely accidental that a later See also:age should have regarded him as its greatest representative. BirmloGKAPHY.—The most complete See also:life of Pergolesi is that by E. Faustini Fasini (Gazzetta musicale di Milano, 31st of See also:August 1899, &c., published by Ricordi in See also:book See also:form, 1900) ; G. Annibaldi's Il Pergolesi in Pozzuoli, vita intima (Jesi, 189o) gives some interesting additional details derived from documents at Jesi, but is See also:cast in the form of a romantic novel. H. M. Schletterer's lecture in the Sammlung musikalischer Vortrage, edited by See also:Count P. von See also:Waldersee, is generally inaccurate and uncritical, but gives a See also:good See also:account of later performances of Pergolesi's works in See also:Italy and elsewhere. Various portraits are reproduced in the Gazz. See also:mus. di Milano for the 14th of See also:December 1899, and in Musica e musicisti, December 1905. Complete lists of his compositions are given in Eitner's Quellen-See also:Lexicon and in See also:Grove's See also:Dictionary (new ed.). (E. J.

End of Article: PERGOLESI (or PERGOLESE), GIOVANNI BATTISTA (1710-1736)

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