Jacquet de Berchem (also known as Giachet(to) Berchem or Jakob van Berchem; c. 1505 ? after March 2, 1567) was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance, active in Italy. He was famous in mid-16th-century Italy for his madrigals, approximately 200 of which were printed in Venice, some in multiple printings due to their considerable popularity. As evidence of his widespread fame, he is listed by Rabelais in Gargantua and Pantagruel as one of the most famous musicians of the time, and the printed music for one of his madrigals appears in a painting by Caravaggio (The Lute Player). While Berchem wrote a few sacred works ? two masses and nine motets have been securely attributed to him ? it is on his more than 200 secular works that his reputation rests. Most of his secular works are Italian madrigals, with the rest being chansons in French. The sacred works are relatively conservative in style, using cantus firmus techniques, canon, and other devices common a generation earlier.
In his secular music, his style varied throughout his career, with his earlier madrigals, such as in the 1546 collection, tending towards polyphonic textures as was the common practice of the Franco-Flemish school, and the later madrigals, such as those in the 1561 collection, being more homophonic and syllabic, often with quick text declamation. His preferred subject matter was love, typically unrequited, and he set texts by Petrarch, Ariosto, Luigi Tansillo, Luigi Cassola, and others. One of his most ambitious projects was a setting of 91 stanzas of Ariosto's Orlando furioso, entitled Capriccio (this is the earliest known use of 'Capriccio' as a musical title).[8] This work first appeared in his 1561 madrigal collection, published by Antonio Gardano, and was dedicated to Alfonso II d'Este.[9]
His Alla dolc'ombra, published in 1544, may be the earliest attempt to create a madrigal cycle, preceding similar groups of madrigals by Jan Nasco and Vincenzo Ruffo, madrigalists also active in northern Italy at the same time. Madrigal cycles were one of several precursors to opera.
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