Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina ( 1525 – 2 February 1594) was an Italian Renaissance composer of sacred music and the best-known 16th-century representative of the Roman School of musical composition. He had a lasting influence on the development of church music, and his work is considered as the culmination of Renaissance polyphony.
Giuseppe Baini
He was born at 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 choir of the pontifical chapel, to which he had as early as 1802 gained admission because of his fine bass voice. 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, 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) 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.