A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Baccusi, Ippolito

by Edward H. Pember

BACCUSI, Ippolito, an Italian monk and musical composer of the 16th century. The dates of his birth and death are unknown, but we find him Maestro di Cappella at the cathedral of Verona in 1590. Scipione Cerreto gives an indication of his exact epoch by saying that he had composed works previously to 1550. This statement Fétis disbelieves, but he does not say why. Baccusi was one of the first composers who introduced into his accompaniments to church music instrumental parts in unison with the voice, in order to support the singers. The works in which he applied this system are printed; the first is intituled 'Hippolyti Baccusi, Eccl. Cath. Veronæ musicæ magistri, missæ tres, tum viva voce tum omni instrumentorum genere cantatu accommodatissimæ, cum octo vocibus, Anadino, Venice, 1596.' The other is a volume containing the psalms used at vespers, with two Magnificats. It has a frontispiece occupied by an analogous inscription of even greater length and, if possible, of even less elegant latinity. The rest of his compositions consist principally of masses, madrigals, mottetti, and psalms, and were published for the most part during his lifetime by Venetians such as Gardano Vincenti and Rampazetti. Isolated pieces of his are found in several miscellaneous publications of the period. Perhaps the most interesting of these is that contributed by him to the volume dedicated by fourteen different Italian composers to their great contemporary, Palestrina.

[ E. H. P. ]