Abbate Giuseppe Baini (21 October 1775 – 21 May 1844) was an Italian priest, music critic, conductor, and composer of church music. He was born in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. 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 because of his fine bass voice, which was said to be powerful, extending from low E♭ to high G. His compositions, of which very few were published, were considered favourable specimens of the severe ecclesiastical style; a ten-part Miserere of his, composed for Holy Week in 1821 by order of

Pope Pius VII Pope Pius VII (; born Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti; 14 August 1742 – 20 August 1823) was head of the Catholic Church from 14 March 1800 to his death in August 1823. He ruled the Papal States from June 1800 to 17 May 1809 and again ...

, has taken a permanent place in the services of the

Sistine Chapel The Sistine Chapel ( ; ; ) is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the pope's official residence in Vatican City. Originally known as the ''Cappella Magna'' ('Great Chapel'), it takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, who had it built between 1473 and ...

during

Passion Week Holy Week () commemorates the seven days leading up to Easter. It begins with the commemoration of Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, marks the betrayal of Jesus on Spy Wednesday ( Holy Wednesday), climaxing with the com ...

. Baini held a higher place, however, as a musical critic and historian than as a composer, and his ''Life of

Palestrina Palestrina (ancient ''Praeneste''; , ''Prainestos'') is a modern Italian city and ''comune'' (municipality) with a population of about 22,000, in Lazio, about east of Rome. It is connected to the latter by the Via Prenestina. It is built upon ...

'' (''Memorie storico-critiche della vita e delle opere di Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina'', 1828) was described by the ''

1911 Encyclopædia Britannica Events January * January 1 – A decade after federation, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory are added to the Commonwealth of Australia. * January 3 ** 1911 Kebin earthquake: An earthquake of 7.7 Mom ...

'' as being "one of the best works of its class". The phrase ''Il Principe della Musica'', which has become firmly associated with the name of Palestrina, is found in the aforementioned biography. Baini's book on Palestrina established the 19th century attitude of hero worship towards the Renaissance master of

counterpoint In music theory, counterpoint is the relationship of two or more simultaneous musical lines (also called voices) that are harmonically dependent on each other, yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. The term originates from the Latin ...

, and also named him as the "savior of church music" versus the alleged "ban on counterpoint" by the

Council of Trent The Council of Trent (), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trent (or Trento), now in northern Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation at the time, it has been described as the "most ...

. Contemporary scholarship, while not claiming that this view was entirely false, tends to hold that it was highly exaggerated; Palestrina was one of many skilled composers working at the time, and the influence of the Council of Trent on musical composition was more limited than at first presumed (the composers of the Venetian School, for example, ignored it almost entirely, and Palestrina-style composers such as

Lassus Orlando di Lasso ( various other names; probably – 14 June 1594) was a composer of the late Renaissance. The chief representative of the mature polyphonic style in the Franco-Flemish school, Lassus stands with William Byrd, Giovanni Pierlu ...

, working in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, were also quite free to write as they pleased). Regardless of its failings, however, Baini's book was influential and did much to bring

Renaissance music Renaissance music is traditionally understood to cover European music of the 15th and 16th centuries, later than the Renaissance era as it is understood in other disciplines. Rather than starting from the early 14th-century ''ars nova'', the mus ...

back into the attention of 19th century musicians as well as the general public. Giuseppe Baini died in May 1844 in

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* * * 1775 births 1844 deaths Italian classical composers of church music 19th-century Italian Roman Catholic priests Italian male classical composers Composers from Rome Italian music critics Italian male non-fiction writers Italian music historians Palestrina scholars Clergy from Rome {{Italy-composer-stub