View source for Giuseppe Baini

{{short description|Italian composer}}
[[File:Giuseppe Baini drawn by Rudolf Lehmann, 1842.png|thumb|200px|Portrait of Giuseppe Baini drawn by Rudolf Lehmann in Rome, 1842.]]
'''Abbate Giuseppe Baini''' (21 October 1775 – 21 May 1844) was an Italian priest, music critic,<ref name="brit">{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Baini, Giuseppe}}</ref> conductor, and composer of church music.<ref name="catholic">{{Cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02209a.htm|title=Abbate Giuseppe Baini|last=Otten|first=Joseph|date=1907|website=www.newadvent.org|access-date=2019-10-13}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Music Lovers' Encyclopedia|last=Hughes|first=Rupert|publisher=Doubleday, Doran and Company, Inc|year=1939|location=New York|pages=41}}</ref>

He was born in [[Rome]]. He was instructed in composition by his uncle, [[Lorenzo Baini]], and afterwards by [[G. Jannaconi]]. In 1814, he was appointed musical director to the [[Sistine Chapel Choir|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.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cametti|first=Alfredo|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_BYoAAAAYAAJ&q=giuseppe+baini+voce+poderosa&pg=PA135|title=Cenni biografici di Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina|publisher=G. Ricordi & C.|year=1895|location=Milan|pages=135}}</ref> His compositions, of which very few were published, were considered favourable specimens of the severe ecclesiastical style; a ten-part [[Psalm 51#Musical settings|Miserere]] of his, 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 [[Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina|Palestrina]]'' (''Memorie storico-critiche della vita e delle opere di Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina'', 1828) was described by the ''[[1911 Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' 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.<ref name="brit"/>

Baini's book on Palestrina established the 19th century attitude of hero worship towards the Renaissance master of [[counterpoint]], and also named him as the "savior of church music" versus the alleged "ban on counterpoint" by the [[Council of Trent]]. 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 (music)|Venetian School]], for example, ignored it almost entirely, and Palestrina-style composers such as [[Orlande de Lassus|Lassus]], working in [[Munich]], 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]] back into the attention of 19th century musicians as well as the general public.<ref name="yalelib">{{Cite web|url=http://www.library.yale.edu/musiclib/exhibits/histories/baini_palestrina.html|title=Yale University Library: Exhibits at the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library: Histories of Music: Giuseppe Baini, Memorie storico-critiche della vita e delle opere di Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina|website=www.library.yale.edu|access-date=2019-10-13}}</ref>

Giuseppe Baini died in May 1844 in [[Rome]].<ref name="catholic"/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{CathEncy|wstitle=Abbate Giuseppe Baini}}
* {{ChoralWiki|Giuseppe Baini|Giuseppe Baini}}
* {{IMSLP|Baini, Giuseppe|Giuseppe Baini}}

{{Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baini, Giuseppe}}
[[Category:1775 births]]
[[Category:1844 deaths]]
[[Category:Italian classical composers of church music]]
[[Category:19th-century Italian Roman Catholic priests]]
[[Category:Italian male classical composers]]
[[Category:Composers from Rome]]
[[Category:Italian music critics]]
[[Category:Italian male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Italian music historians]]
[[Category:Palestrina scholars]]
[[Category:Clergy from Rome]]


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