Instigating ‘querelle des bouffons’ in the mid-eighteenth century France, La serva padrona (1733) by a Neapolitan composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710~1736) was recognized as a precursor for music language of classical period in the history of music. The present study investigates not only meanings of musical comedy of intermezzo genre but also typicalities and comicalities expressed in La serva padrona. Pietro Metastasio (1698~1782) and his companions eliminated comic characters and scenes appeared often in opera due to popularity of commedia del’ Arte. Independent from opera seria, small-scale music drama with its own comic plot was performed between acts. The two-acts intermezzi La serva padrona describes a realistic, middle-class life and two comic main characters, soprano and bass, show features of typical intermezzo. However, this work is valued as an epitome of comicality among Pergolesi’s music.
‘Natural’ and ‘galant’ style expressed in La serva padrona suggest the waning of the previous period, namely Baroque, and the waxing of the classicism. The buffon style is characterized by bright and light atmosphere, vivid rhythm, simple harmony, tuneful melody with periodicity, expression of complex emotions, music faithful to text and comic features, all of which fully depict spontaneous pleasures.
Additionally, Pergolesi’s compositional mastery can be seen with formal balance, compositional contrast for quick emotional change, and simple but non-monotonous repetition. Meanwhile his concern on the society and mockery of a distorted relationship and social irregularity were left as a laugh at the ‘foolish’ man and the ‘wily woman’.