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) ranks as 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 .