BENEVOLI, ORAZIO. — Musician, born in Rome on 9 April 1605, died there on 17 June 1672. He was a boy chorister, then chapel master at S. Luigi de' Francesi (1617–23), in various other Roman churches and in the Cappella Giulia (7 November 1646–17 June 1672), with the interval of 1643–46, during which he was court musician to Archduke Leopoldo Guglielmo in Vienna. He composed a great deal of sacred music: psalms, motets, offertories, and masses for a large number of voices (12, 16, 24, 30), among which the one for 12 voices has remained famous; it was performed in Rome in 1650 and recently published by Guido Adler (v.) in vol. X of the Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich (Vienna 1896).
BIBL.: G. Adler, Sulla «Messa», in Riv. mus. ital., 1 (1903), p. 1 ff.; A. Cametti, O. B., ibid., 6 (1915), p. 629 ff.