Today is the first Monday of this year. I mean, it’s not that it matters whether it’s the first Monday or not, but the fact that this is the new beginning of the calendar year prompted me to participate in #musicmonday. And the post by 
When I was a child there was one short show on television, which highlighted what essentially happened on a particular date and what important personalities were born on that day. So I checked out what important composers were born on today's date. Not many, but one was Giovanni Battista Pergolesi.
As he was an Italian composer, my first thought was He is my guy for today! You know, Italy is somehow in my heart!
So one winter day, the fourth day of a new year, maybe similar to this one as we are living today, in the year 1710 one boy was born. He was just Giovanni Battista, but that nickname Pergolesi derives from his grandfather, who was born in Pergola. The young Giovanni received musical education from the early days (violin and organ), and when he was fifteen, he was admitted to the Conservatory of the poor of Jesus Christ in Naples, where he was able to study composition.
He graduated at the age of 21 and started to compose comic operas. One of the first ones, Lo Frate 'nnamorato, a musical comedy in Italian and Neapolitan on a libretto by Gennaro Antonio Federico, was staged by the Teatro dei Fiorentini in September 1732. The opera had an extraordinary success and was undoubtedly one of the most successful composition during Pergolesi's life.
Here we can hear Lo Frate 'nnamorato.
The dramatic tsunami that hit the city of Naples at the end of 1732 led to the suspension of the carnival celebrations in the Neapolitan city for 1733 and the theatre season. Pergolesi had to wait until the end of summer, in particular on 28 August 1733, until the performance of his Il Prigionier Superbo. It is a drama for music in three acts and it contains one intermezzo, La Serva Padrona, probably the most famous work by Pergolesi. It served as a light-hearted staged entertainment between the acts of Pergolesi's serious opera Il Prigionier Superbo.
But not everything in Pergolesi's opus were comic operas. We wrote a number of instrumental music (for keyboard, violin), sinfonies, and of course, sacred music, including a Mass in Fa, a Missa Sacrum, and a Te Deum. However, the most important one is his Stabat Mater. I think that this piece probably everyone heard in it's life. If not, you should listen to it.
Can you imagine that he wrote it in the last weeks of his life, when he was sick with tuberculosis and knew he could die?! At the age of 26... This fact just add up to that emotional pathos that he achieved through the masterful use of dissonances.
I know that it is not common nowadays to listen to this kind of baroque comic operas. But just take a look into the videos a maybe a small smile can appear in our faces. For sure, Stabat Mater is other kind of emotion that will overhelm us listening to it. Whatever you choose, let the emotions guide you in this music, as that would be the point of the arts, to move us and make an emotional reaction. Happy Birthday Giovanni Battista Pergolesi and thank you for the music you left us.
P.S. The midnight has passed, so it is already now January 5. Something happened to my laptop and it blocked so I had to wait a bit to continue with my post.