Tommaso Bai, or Tommaso Baj, was born in
Crevalcore around 1650 and died 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, ...
on 22 December 1714. He was an Italian conductor, composer, and tenor at the Vatican. He is most well known for his ''Miserere'',
which is associated with
Gregorio Allegri
Gregorio Allegri (17 February 1652) was an Italian Catholic priest and composer of the Roman School and brother of Domenico Allegri; he was also a singer. He was born"Allegri, Gregorio" in '' Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes ...
's ''Miserere''.
During the last years of his life he had been the
Kapellmeister
( , , ), from German (chapel) and (master), literally "master of the chapel choir", designates the leader of an ensemble of musicians. Originally used to refer to somebody in charge of music in a chapel, the term has evolved considerably in i ...
of the
Cappella Giulia in Rome.
[Eitner, Robert (1832–1905), Biographisch-bibliographisches Quellen-Lexikon der Musiker und Musikgelehrten der christlichen Zeitrechnung bis zur Mitte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts, Leipzig : Breitkopf & Haèrtel, 1900, S. 303 und 309, über: https://archive.org/details/biographischbibl01eitn/page/251/mode/1up]
Biography
In the year of 1670 he joined the Choir of the Cappella Giulia and stayed there until his dying day. He also advanced to become a personal singer of the pope. He served the following superiors, who had been his predecessors as the Kapellmeister of the Cappella Giulia:
[Liliana Pannella - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 5 (1963), ''BAJ, Tommaso'', Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana fondata da Giovanni Treccani, über: https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/tommaso-baj_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/]
*
Orazio Benevoli (1646–1672)
*
Ercole Bernabei (1672–1674)
*
Antonio Masini (1674–1678)
*
Don Francesco Berretta (1678–1694)
*
Paolo Lorenzani (1694–1713)
In 1713 he got to be the Kapellmeister. He kept this function until his dying day.
There are different opinions about this date; for example in a music sheet of his ''Virgo gloriosa'' - owned by a person called ''Haberl'' - his date of death is claimed to be 1717.
[Eitner, Robert; Biographisch-bibliographisches Quellen-Lexikon der Musiker und Musikgelehrten der christlichen Zeitrechnung bis zur Mitte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts; Leipzig : Breitkopf & Haèrtel, 1900, S. 309; über: https://archive.org/details/biographischbibl01eitn/page/251/mode/1up] According to Baini he died on the 22nd December 1714.
Works
Bai was acclaimed for his intricate attention to prosody, accentuation of words, and notation.
His well known ''Miserere'', which he composed in 1713,
is claimed by some opinions to be an imitation
Gregorio Allegri
Gregorio Allegri (17 February 1652) was an Italian Catholic priest and composer of the Roman School and brother of Domenico Allegri; he was also a singer. He was born"Allegri, Gregorio" in '' Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes ...
's ''
Miserere''.
According to
Eitner this Miserere, that is performed during the Easter day, consists of two parts; the first part is written for 5 voices and it had been composed by Allegri and the second part written for four voices origininates of Baj [originally by Eitner 1905: ''Der 1. Chor zu 5 Stim., ist von Allegri und der 2. Chor zu 4 Stim. von Bai. (Capella sistina Kat. p. 50. B, B., L 24. B. Joach. Bei'lin Singak. Lübeck. Schwerin F. inkompl. Hofb. Wien 15926, 2. Musikfr. Wien. Bologna.—'' printed in ''Choron, Burney'' and ''Lugano 1840''.)].
Furthermore, there exist the following compositions (quotation after Eitner):
* ''Miserere'' 4voices, performed as described above in sequence with the Miserere by Allegri (s. u.)
* ''Virgo gloriosa'', (Haberl, privately, see above)
)
* ''Miserere 8 voc.'' fecit 1700. Ms. 16690
* ''Missa super Ut re mi fa, 5 voc. in P.'' — T 39 allerlei Gesge. in P. — "''W. 17 Nr. 81 obige Messe in P"''.
* ''Mss. in B. M.''
* ''2 Messen zu 5 Stkn''., ''1 Miserere zu 5 Stim'', and ''13 Motetten zu 4 u. 5 Stim'', in P.
* ''Missa 5 voc.'', Ms. 16698 Nr. 13 in Hofb. Wien
* ''2 Motetten zu 4 Stim'', in P: ''Serve bone'' and ''Dne. quando veneris'', Ms. Bd. 158 in Breslau Kircheninstit.
* ''1 Gesg. in alter Hds''., P. in Brüssel 1854
* further pieces of mucic, printed later on.
Further reading
* Robert Eitner: Biographisch-bibliographisches Quellen-Lexikon der Musiker und Musikgelehrten der christlichen Zeitrechnung bis zur Mitte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts
* Giancarlo Rostirolla: ''La Cappella Giulia 1513–2013: Cinque secoli di musica sacra in San Pietro.''
* G. Gaspari, ''Catal. d. Bibl. del Liceo Musicale di Bologna'', II, Bologna 1892, S. 174; III, ibid. 1893, S. 6
* F. J. Fétis, ''Biogr. univ. des musiciens'', I, Paris 1860, S. 225 ff.
* ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', I, col. 1092
* ''Dizionario Ricordi della musica e dei musicisti'', Milano 1959, S. 92.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bai, Tommaso
Year of birth uncertain
1714 deaths
Italian conductors (music)
17th-century Italian composers
18th-century Italian composers
People from Crevalcore