BENEVOLI, ORAZIO. — Musician, born in Rome on 9 April 1605, died there on 17 June 1672. He was a boy chorister, then maestro di cappella at S. Luigi dei Francesi (1617–23), in various other Roman churches, and at the Cappella Giulia (7 November 1646 to 17 June 1672), with the exception of 1643–46, when he served as court musician to Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Vienna. He composed much sacred music: psalms, motets, offertories, and masses with large numbers of voices (12, 16, 24, 30), among which the one for 12 voices, performed in Rome in 1650 and recently published by Guido Adler (v.) in vol. X of Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich (Vienna 1896), has remained famous.
BIBL.: G. Adler, Sulla Messa, in Riv. mus. ital., 1 (1903), pp. 1 ff.; A. Cametti, O. B., ibid., 6 (1915), pp. 629 ff.