Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

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Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (born January 4, 1710 in Jesi , Marche , † March 16, 1736 in Pozzuoli near Naples ; also written Pergolese ) was an Italian composer of the Baroque and the Neapolitan School .

Life

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi received his first music lessons from Francesco Santi, the conductor at Jesi Cathedral. The connections that his father had as a surveyor with the urban nobility enabled Pergolesi to study at the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesù Cristo in Naples, where he was accepted between 1720 and 1725. His main teachers there were Gaetano Greco and Francesco Durante . The performance of the dramma sacro Li prodigi della divina grazia nella conversione e morte di S. Guglielmo duca d'Aquitania in the summer of 1731 in the monastery of San Agnello should be regarded as the conclusion of his studies .

Immediately afterwards, Pergolesi was commissioned to compose the opera La Salustia for the opening of the carnival season at the Teatro San Bartolomeo . Since the castrato Nicolino, who was intended for the main role, fell ill during the rehearsal period and died on January 1, 1732, the premiere was delayed and ultimately became a failure. In the same year Pergolesi became conductor of Ferdinando Colonna , Prince of Stigliano . The performance of the comic opera Lo frate 'nnamorato on September 27, 1732 at the Teatro dei Fiorentini brought him lasting success.

After a devastating earthquake struck Naples on November 29th, the city fathers decided to hold a supplication service on December 31st every year in the church of Santa Maria della Stella. Pergolesi's Mass in D major and most of his Vespers compositions were probably composed for these occasions. For the Empress's birthday on August 28, 1733, he wrote the opera Il prigionier superbo with the interlude, La serva padrona , which, detached from the main opera, was soon re-enacted everywhere and became the first repertoire piece in music theater. On February 23, 1734 Pergolesi received the appointment as deputy of the royal Kapellmeister Domenico Sarro with the option to become his successor in the event of Sarro's death.

After the retreat of the Austrians (who had ruled the city since 1707) and the arrival of Charles of Bourbon as Viceroy Charles III. on May 10th Pergolesi followed the Prince of Stigliano to Rome . There a relative of the prince, Domenico Marzio Carafa , Duke of Maddaloni , appointed him his bandmaster. On behalf of the Duke, Pergolesi wrote the double-choir Mass in F major, which was performed on May 16, 1734 in the Church of San Lorenzo in Lucina.

Back in Naples, Pergolesi's new opera Adriano in Siria was released at the Teatro San Bartolomeo on October 25, 1734 on the occasion of the Spanish Queen's birthday . Pergolesi had to write the main role according to the wishes of the castrato star Caffarelli (Gaetano Majorano), who achieved a great personal success, while the play as a whole failed. Pergolesi was commissioned for the opera L'olimpiade , which premiered in January 1735 at the Teatro Tordinona in Rome, probably because of the impression his Mass in F major had made in Rome . According to contemporary reports, the work met with rejection; a dissatisfied listener is said to have thrown an orange at the composer's head (this is what André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry reports in his memoir, citing contemporary witnesses).

Pergolesi's comic opera Il Flaminio was a great success in the autumn of 1735 at the Teatro dei Fiorentini in Naples. According to a remark in the libretto, he had previously been appointed organist of the Royal Chapel in Naples. Pergolesi had to break off work on the cantata Il tempo felice for the wedding of Prince Raimondo di San Severo in December 1735 due to illness; it was completed by Nicola Sabatino. Pergolesi went to the seaside resort of Pozzuoli near Naples to relax. It was there, presumably on behalf of the “Confraternità dei Cavalieri di S. Luigi di Palazzo”, that the Stabat mater , which is considered to be his last completed composition. Pergolesi died of tuberculosis on March 16, 1736 and was buried on March 17 in the Franciscan monastery in Pozzuoli.

Post fame

The Pergolesi monument in Jesi

In the five years that were granted to him as creative time after leaving the conservatory, Pergolesi created a complete oeuvre that has preoccupied posterity like hardly any other Italian composer of the 18th century (with the exception of Antonio Vivaldi ). His fame throughout Europe represented a new phenomenon in music history and far exceeded the immediate aftermath of Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart . As in the case of Mozart, his early death gave rise to enthusiastic admiration and sentimental transfiguration ( Vincenzo Bellini called him the “angelico maestro”), behind which the real historical personality almost disappeared. In addition, the fame that set in immediately after his death prompted some publishers to use the pull of the now famous name to market works by lesser-known composers. Of the 148 compositions in the first complete edition of his works, only 30 are considered authentic today.

meaning

Fake and real instrumental works

The six concerti armonici , published anonymously in The Hague in 1740 , were ascribed to Pergolesi along with many other composers; It was not until 1980 that the Dutch musicologist Albert Dunning was able to prove that they came from Count Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer , who was a diplomat a. a. was active in Paris and wanted to remain anonymous. The 12 trio sonatas printed in London around 1780 under Pergolesi's name, from which Igor Stravinsky quoted some themes in his ballet Pulcinella (believing that they were original works by Pergolesi), could now be ascribed to Domenico Gallo without a doubt . They probably originated in the 1750s. Most of the instrumental works published under Pergolesi's name are erroneously ascribed to him; his few authentic works are insignificant compared to his vocal music. His apparently authentic double concerto for two harpsichords is one of the earliest examples of its kind and shows (together with other earlier examples from Italy) a parallel development of this genre outside Germany.

Church music

Pergolesi's early sacred compositions are written in the style typical of the time for large, sometimes double-choir ensembles. In contrast, his last work, the Stabat mater , introduces the " gallant style " with which Pergolesi was able to celebrate dazzling successes on the European stages in " La serva padrona " for the first time in church music. The operatic melody in the solo passages was criticized for the first time by Padre Martini in his composition theory from 1774 and met with criticism, especially in German-speaking countries until the 19th century. Pergolesi's Stabat mater was the most frequently printed piece of music in the 18th century and has undergone numerous adaptations (including a translation by Christoph Martin Wieland in 1781 ). Johann Sebastian Bach, for example, adapted it by adding a new text to Psalm 51 ( Tilge, Höchster, Meine Sünden , BWV 1083) for the Protestant church service, Georg Joseph Vogler analyzed and "improved" the work in his Kurpfälzische Tonschule (1778–1781), and Antonio Salieri and Franz Xaver Süßmayr created a richly orchestrated version with a four-part choir for the Viennese court orchestra at the end of the 18th century, which was revised by Otto Nicolai in 1843 .

The original version for two solo voices (soprano and alto), strings and basso continuo only caught on again in the course of the early music movement .

Operas

Pergolesi's serious operas generally show the typical characteristics of the Italian opera seria . The quality of the melodic invention is particularly striking in L'olimpiade , which gives the protagonists' emotional impulses an individual expression that goes beyond standardized empty phrases. This unconventional interpretation of the text, combined with the extensive renunciation of vocal virtuosity, is likely to be responsible for the failure at the premiere as well as for the appreciation the work enjoyed soon afterwards.

As was customary in Naples at the time, Pergolesi composed cheerful intermezzi for his serious operas, which were given between the acts of the main opera and which quickly became independent. La serva padrona (“The Maid as Mistress”), originally intended as a pause filler for the opera Il prigionier superbo , was part of the repertoire of an Italian traveling opera troupe that made a guest appearance in Paris in 1752, along with a number of similar works by various composers. The performance on August 1, 1752 drove the long-standing discussions about the priority of French or Italian music to extremes and led to a heated debate that has gone down in history as the Buffonist dispute ( querelle des bouffons ).

In addition to the short interludes, Pergolesi wrote two full-length comic operas, Lo frate 'nnamorato and Il Flaminio , which, as “Commedia per musica”, represent a form of early opera buffa typical of Naples . The social status of the characters involved is characterized by different language levels. The upper class use the standard language, the servant figures speak dialect. The musical vocabulary usually corresponds to this: The persons of standing are to be classified as parti serie with the stylistic devices of the opera seria, etc. a. extensive coloratura arias , drawn, the rest as parti buffa with those of the opera buffa, thus popular song forms and fast parlando . Here, too, Pergolesi often shows himself as a musical dramatist independent of the conventions of his time. So z. For example, the bravura singing is exaggerated to the point of caricature in order to make a person's vanity and arrogance ridiculous, or simple verse song forms are used to express very serious feelings. The boundaries between “high” and “low” level appear to be partially blurred, at least on a musical level, and the drawing of persons develops from a type comedy to a character comedy.

In addition to the complete operas, numerous individual arias have survived, many with uncertain attribution. Of the solo cantatas, Orfeo is particularly valued as an example of Pergolesi's lyrical and expressive style.

Aftermath

His stabat mater became one of the most popular works of the 18th century. At the end of the 18th century, Antonio Salieri and Franz Xaver Süßmayr created a new version of the Stabat mater for soprano, alto, four-part choir and orchestra, which was revised again by Ignaz von Seyfried in 1831 . Johann Sebastian Bach reworked the Stabat mater for the cantata Tilge, Höchster, meine Sünden (BWV 1083). The viola, which in the original goes largely parallel to the bass, is given a new, obligatory part.

After an extremely successful performance of Pergolesi's intermezzo La Serva padrona in Paris, disputes arose in 1752 between supporters of the serious French tragedy lyrique and the Italian opera buffa (“Querelle des bouffons”).

The Ballet Pulcinella by Igor Stravinsky is composed of melodies that have been partly ascribed to Pergolesi, some of which musicology now unequivocally ascribes to the composer Domenico Gallo, who died around 1775 .

List of works

The following information is taken from Pergolesi's list of works from the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians . Only compositions recognized as genuine are performed.

Operas

Sacred stage works, oratorios

Spiritual works

  • Mass in D major (Kyrie and Gloria) for two five-part choirs (1731)
  • Mass in F major (Kyrie and Gloria) for two five-part choirs (1732)
  • Psalm Confitebor for solos and five-part choir (1732)
  • Introitus Deus in adjutorium for soprano and five-part choir (1732)
  • Psalm Dixit Dominus for two five-part choirs (1732)
  • Antiphon In coelestibus regnis for alto, strings and continuo
  • Motet In hac die quam decora for four solos and six-part choir
  • Psalm Laudate pueri for soprano and five-part choir
  • Psalm Laudate pueri Dominum for soprano, five-part choir, oboe, trumpet, horn, strings and figured bass
  • Antiphon Salve Regina in A minor for soprano, strings and continuo
  • Antiphon Salve Regina in C minor (1736) for soprano, strings and continuo
  • Stabat mater in F minor for soprano, alto, strings and figured bass (1736)

Cantatas and other vocal works

  • Four cantatas for soprano, strings and continuo: Chi non ode , Dalsigre or Nigella , Luce degli occhi miei , Nel chiuso centro , before autumn 1735
  • Cantata Della città vicino for soprano, strings and continuo
  • Cantata Questo è il piano for alto, strings and continuo (1732)
  • Solfeggi for two and three voices
  • Scherzo Venerabilis barba cappucinorum for the Capuchins in Pozzuoli (1735)

Instrumental

  • Concerto in B flat major for violin, strings and basso continuo
  • Concerto in C major for two harpsichords and strings
  • Sonata in F major for organ
  • Sinfonia (Sonata) in F major for violoncello and basso continuo
  • Sonata in G major for violin and basso continuo

literature

  • Alfred Baumgartner: Propylaea World of Music - The Composers - A lexicon in five volumes . tape 4 . Propylaen Verlag, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-549-07830-7 , pp. 298-299 .

Web links

Commons : Giovanni Battista Pergolesi  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Simon Heighes: Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (English)
  2. ^ Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Edition, Volume 19, p. 394
  3. ↑ On the occasion of Wieland's 275th birthday, Pergolesi's Stabat mater was performed for the first time in Wieland's German version on September 5, 2008. The world premiere took place under the direction of Alexander Eberle, the choir director of the Aalto-Theater . The Munich baroque orchestra L'arpa festante played and the soprano Elisabeth Scholl and the countertenor Alexander Schneider sang in the church of St. Peter (Oßmannstedt) near Weimar .
  4. ^ Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Edition, Volume 19, p. 395
  5. ↑ List of works by the Centro Studi Pergolesi , accessed on August 5, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Pergolesi, Giovanni Battista
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pergolese, Giovanni Battista
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian composer
DATE OF BIRTH January 4, 1710
PLACE OF BIRTH Jesi
DATE OF DEATH March 16, 1736
Place of death Pozzuoli near Naples