Giovanni Maria da Crema remains to this day a mysterious figure in the history of the lute, with very little information known about his life. However his oeuvre is crucial to understanding the lute’s place in 16th-century Italy. His Libro primo, published in Venice by Antonio Gardane in 1546, is presented as an edition “newly reprinted and corrected by the author himself”, indicating the existence of a rival prior edition, namely that published by Girolamo Scotto, with the same contents and minimal differences. Two years later, also in Venice, Scotto would publish Francesco da Milano’s Libro settimo which also includes keyboard pieces by Giulio Segni da Modena intabulated for the lute by Giovanni Maria da Crema. Some of these intabulations had already appeared in Giovanni Maria da Crema’s Libro primo without mention of Giulio Segni’s authorship of the keyboard original.

This recording features the Libro primo, with the addition of three pieces from the Da Milano Libro settimo. The former aims to present a broad overview of lute music in the mid-16th century. Divided into implicit sections, it opens with 15 ricercars, among the most interesting of the period, in a continuous alternation of styles and characters. Some of them clearly show the influence of Francesco da Milano, with at least two of them (the Nono and Undecimo) attributed directly to Da Milano in other sources. The chansons section is quite extensive and includes intabulations of songs by composers well-known and anonymous. A personal selection was made for this recording. Next is a series of motets. The beautiful four-voice Quae est ista by Nicolas Gombert for example is masterfully intabulated by Da Crema. The madrigal genre is represented by five pieces; two each by Philippe Verdelot and Jacob Arcadelt are included on the recording. The Libro primo closes with a series of dances, primarily of two types – passamezzo and saltarello – which in some cases form a pair based on the same musical material.

This recording represents a highly personal selection of Giovanni Maria da Crema’s lute works dictated solely by the performer’s taste and artistic needs. Like Da Crema’s contemporaries, Domenico Cerasani believes this music to be of extraordinary value, able to engage today’s listeners and immerse them in the fascinating and multifaceted world of the 16th-century lute.