Giuseppe Baini

Giuseppe Baini (1775—1844), Italian priest, musical critic and composer of church music, was born at Rome on the 21st of October 1775. He was instructed in composition by his uncle, Lorenzo Baini, and afterwards by G. Jannaconi. In 1814 he was appointed musical director to the choir of the pontifical chapel, to which he had as early as 1802 gained admission in virtue of his fine bass voice. His compositions, of which very few have been published, were very favourable specimens of the severe ecclesiastical style; one in particular, a ten-part Miserere, composed for Holy Week in 1821 by order of Pope Pius VII, has taken a permanent place in the services of the Sistine chapel during Passion Week. Baini held a higher place, however, as a musical critic and historian. than as a composer, and his Life of Palestrina (Memorie storico-critiche della vita e delle opere di Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, 1828) was described by the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica as being "one of the best works of its class". The phrase Il Principe della Musica, which has become finally associated with the name of Palestrina, originates with this biography. Giuseppe Baini died on the 21st of May 1844 in Rome.