Paolo Agostini

Born at Vallerano in 1593; died 1629, famous composer and pupil of the celebrated Nanini, whose son-in-law he became. Taking for models his predecessors of the Venetian and Roman school, he studied in a particular manner the art of composing for a number of simultaneous choirs, and so gained the highest esteem of his contemporaries. On one occasion, after assisting at a mass of his for forty-eight voices, Pope Urban VIII expressed his highest admiration for the composition. Manuscript copies of his works are to be found in the Vatican Archives, and in the Corsini Library. The only ones printed were two volumes of Psalms (Rome, 1619); two volumes of Magnificats (ib., 1620), and five volumes of masses, for four to twelve voices (ib., 1624-28). He succeeded Ugolini as maestro at the Vatican Chapel in 1627. His compositions were distinguished by elegance and ingenuity, but he could rise to lofty flights of genius, as in an Agnus Dei reprinted by P. Martini in his “Saggio di Contrappunto.”