BAINI, Giuseppe, a learned musical critic and composer of church music, was born at Rome in 1775, and died there in 1844. He was instructed in composition by his uncle, Lorenzo Baini, and afterwards by Jannaconi. In 1814 he was appointed musical director to the choir of the pontifical chapel, in which he had for several years been one of the principal bass singers. His compositions were very favourable specimens of the severe ecclesiastical style; one in particular, a Miserere, was long performed alternately with the more celebrated work of Allegri 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.