Although he composed roughly one tenth of the pieces in the Thesaurus Harmonicus, Besard was not a professional musician. Educated in law and medicine at the Universities of Dôle and Heidelberg, by around 1600 he had established himself as a lute teacher in Cologne, while continuing to practice as a lawyer and doctor. It has been suggested that he paid for the publication of the Thesaurus by working as an editor of legal texts for his publisher Grevenbruch. Besard later moved to Augsburg where in 1617 he published a second book of lute music, Novus partus, and an expanded edition of his lute tutor in German. Nothing further is known of Besard after this date.

Attempting to condense a collection of music as vast as the Thesaurus Harmonicus into a one hour length recording is a seemingly quixotic endeavour and this in no way claims to be a comprehensive survey of the text. The pieces were chosen for purely personal reasons as being the most interesting, moving and outstanding works I discovered while exploring the book. Much more has been left out than is included in this collection, my intention being to create an expressive musical programme rather than an academic overview.

The Thesaurus Harmonicus contains some of the best-known lute music along with some of the most obscure. Both are presented here. The pieces by Dowland are probably the most famous works for lute, though they contain subtle variations that should make them interesting to even the most experienced listener. Many of the pieces in the collection are extremely short, especially the dance tunes. Tracks 2 and 14 are both formed of three shorter pieces put together to create a longer structure, using one of the dances as the theme in a rondo-esque structure.

1. Praeludium (Lorenzino Romanus)
2. 3 Branles a corde avallee (anon)
3. Canaries (anon)
4. Fantasia (Lorenzino Romanus)
5. Allemande (anon)
6. Courante (anon)
7. Galliarda (Pomponio da Bologna)
8. Praeludium (Lorenzino Romanus)
9. Fantasia (Lachrimae Pavan) (John Dowland)
10. Galliarda (Captain Digorie Piper's Galliard) (John Dowland)
11. Fantasia (John Dowland)
12. Preambel (Lorenzino Romanus)
13. Passamezzo (Jean-Baptiste Besard)
14. 3 Voltes
15. Allemande (Une Jeune Fillette) (Jean-Baptiste Besard)
16. Branle (Jean-Baptiste Besard)

Listen to: the entire album.

Release date: 03/21/2015
James Akers lives in Epsom England

Tagged as: Classical, Renaissance, Instrumental, Composer: Jean-Baptiste Besard, Composer: John Dowland, Composer: Lorenzino Romanus, Lute

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