Life
Trained at the height of Neoclassicism, his long career as a musicologist and composer led him to reach full artistic maturity in the Romantic period, dedicating himself in particular to the study of ancient polyphony.
Giuseppe Baini was born in Rome in 1775. From a young age, he dedicated himself to the study of music, gravitating toward sacred composition and historical study. He entered the Roman ecclesiastical environment, where he developed solid experience as a master and theorist.
Aneddoto
Palestrina's biographer
The biography of Palestrina written by Baini was so appreciated that for decades it became the primary point of reference for scholars and enthusiasts of ancient music.Works
Baini's compositions primarily concern sacred music. He wrote masses and choral pieces, as well as treatises and studies that marked the birth of modern Italian musicology.
Briciole di storia
The war of the statues
Upon the arrival of French troops in 1796, a "war of the statues" broke out in Bologna, and symbols of papal power risked destruction. To save the large statue of Pope Gregory XIII on the facade of Palazzo d’Accursio, the Bolognese found an ingenious compromise, "transforming" it into Saint Petronius by adding a mitre and crozier and changing the inscription on the base. Thus the work remained in its place, and only in 1895 did it return to being the original statue of the pontiff.
Pubblico dominio (Commons)
