Giovanni Maria da Crema

(1520 - 1570) Little is known about the Italian lutenist and composer Giovanni Maria da Crema. He was born about 1520 and died about 1570. He was clearly a skilful performer, and as a composer was responsible also for transcriptions of chansons and other vocal compositions by distinguished contemporaries. He probably belonged to the circle of Francesco da Milano and may have been at the Mantuan court. His lute books of 1546 contain ricercars in both polyphonic and improvisatory style, dances, and transcriptions of pieces by composers such as Josquin, Gombert and Arcadelt. His 1548 anthology transcribed in tablature motets, canzoni, chansons françaises(16), madrigals, pavanes and saltarellos. Other pieces appear in anthologies, notably those published in Louvain by Pierre Phalèse. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.