Life
Jean-Baptiste Besard was a French lutenist, composer, and anthologist, born around 1567 in Besançon. He studied law at the University of Dole before traveling to Rome, where he studied medicine and also learned lute from the celebrated virtuoso Lorenzino del Liuto. He later worked in Cologne and Augsburg within the Holy Roman Empire. In 1603 he published his most famous work, Thesaurus Harmonicus, a landmark anthology containing 403 arrangements for lute in French tablature, drawing on the work of 21 composers including himself. The collection included an appended primer on lute technique, De modo in testudine libellus, later translated into English by Robert Dowland. He died around 1625.
Impact
Jean-Baptiste Besard’s Thesaurus Harmonicus is one of the most important surviving sources of late Renaissance lute music, preserving hundreds of pieces that would otherwise be lost. As both composer and compiler, he helped standardize and disseminate lute repertoire across Europe, and his instructional appendix shaped lute pedagogy for decades.
Repertoire
Branle Gay, 1603
A lively French court dance included in Besard’s Thesaurus Harmonicus anthology of 1603.
Branle Gay – Jean-Baptiste Bésard (éd.) – Lute — Performed by Luthval
Thesaurus harmonicus: Branle gay — Performed by Ronn McFarlane
Praeludium (Prelude), 1603
An improvisatory solo prelude from Thesaurus Harmonicus, representative of the collection’s preludial repertoire.
Jean-Baptiste Besard, Praeludium (Prelude) — Performed by musicapingpong