Tommaso Bai

Tommaso Bai, or Tommaso Baj, was born in Crevalcore around 1650 and died in Rome on 22 December 1714. He was an Italian conductor, composer, and tenor at the Vatican. He is most well known for his Miserere, which is associated with Gregorio Allegri’s Miserere. During the last years of his life he had been the Kapellmeister of the Cappella Giulia in Rome. Biography In the year of 1670 he joined the Choir of the Cappella Giulia and stayed there until his dying day. He also advanced to become a personal singer of the pope. He served the following superiors, who had been his predecessors as the Kapellmeister of the Cappella Giulia: * Orazio Benevoli (1646–1672) * Ercole Bernabei (1672–1674) * Antonio Masini (1674–1678) * Don Francesco Berretta (1678–1694) * Paolo Lorenzani (1694–1713) In 1713 he got to be the Kapellmeister. He kept this function until his dying day. According to Baini he died on 22 December 1714. Works Bai was acclaimed for his intricate attention to prosody, accentuation of words, and notation. His well known Miserere, which he composed in 1713, is claimed by some opinions to be an imitation Gregorio Allegri’s Miserere. According to Eitner this Miserere, that is perfo