The nearly forgotten figure of Francesco Antonio Baseo, a musician from Lecce, stands out within a period (the last three decades of the sixteenth century) characterized by an intense cultural fervour in the Terra d’Otranto, the south-eastern extremity of the Kingdom of Naples. Three collections of printed music by Baseo survive, and all of them were published in Venice, i.e. a collection of Canzoni villanesche alla napolitana (1573) and two of Madrigali a cinque voci (1573 and 1582). They are our only sources for knowing something of his biography.
From the title-page of the two books of Madrigals we learn that he had been the Chapel master at the Cathedral of Lecce; presumably he had held this position uninterruptedly throughout those nine years. The preface and the list of the composers whose pieces were collected in the book of villanelle, instead, lead us to the dense system of Baseo’s relationships with the nobility of Lecce, including such families as those called Mettola, Guidani, Mareschallo and Santo Pietro del Negro. The connection with the latter family becomes even more explicit in the Dedication of the 1573 Book of Madrigals, offered to Giovanni Battista Santo Pietro del Negro: “Having made a good choice of very sweet and suave Madrigals, […] it seemed to me reasonable to dedicate them to you, since I have certain knowledge that you exceedingly enjoy Music. This is proved by your [Son], Mr Pasquale. Thanks – first and foremost – to your solicitude and diligence, and also to my endeavours, he reached such a degree of musical perfection that very few, at his age, can follow him closely, and none can match him” [«Havendo fatta una buona scelta di assai dolci e soavi madrigali […] mi è parso di ragione dedicargli a voi, al quale so certo che la Musica sommamente piace. Che di ciò ne fa fede il S. Pasquale vostro il quale, mercé prima della vostra sollecitudine et diligenza et poi delle mie fatiche, è pervenuto a quel grado di perfezione di Musica che pochissimi veramente dell’età sua sono che gli vadano appresso, non che al pari».] This familiarity may indicate that also the future composer Giulio Santo Pietro del Negro (i.e. Giovanni Battista’s second son) certainly benefited from Baseo’s teaching, before beginning his fecund musical career in Lombardy (Milan and Pavia).
Baseo originated from a probably Venetian family (Baseo: see Baxejo, Basegio, Baseggio). He was therefore not only an artist deeply ingrained within the socio-cultural fabric of the city of Lecce, but also a teacher of some representatives of the following generation of Salento musicians. In support of this founding role of that school, the two 1573 publications demonstrate that he was focused on a work of collection of the most illustrative works from a particular geographical context. The collection of villanelle offers a view on the most representative composers of Lecce, whereas the Madrigal book offers a taste of the most important composers who were active between Rome and Naples in those years. Particularly noteworthy, in this collection, is the presence of the only hitherto known madrigal in the Italian language by Diego Ortiz, together with the first edition of madrigals by Giovanni Domenico Da Nola, Stefano Felis and Philippe De Monte, as well as two otherwise unpublished works by Bartolomeo Roy.
The publication of 1582, which constitutes the object of this discographic recording, consecrated him eventually as a composer. Nineteen out of the twenty-one madrigals in this collection are his own, even though a homage is not missing to two famous colleagues from nearby Bari, i.e. Stefano Felis (whose works had already appeared in the 1573 collection) and Mutio Effrem (who is famous for his enflamed diatribe in letters against Marco da Gagliano). The collection is dedicated to Ferrante Caracciolo, a Neapolitan nobleman who was the Count of Biccari and Duke of Airola. He had been the commander of the Barletta presidio against the Turks, and he participated in the famous Battle of Lepanto (1571), about which he told in his Commentarji (with a Preface by Scipione Ammirato). The Dedication’s occasion is likely to have been Ferrante’s appointment, in 1582, as the Governor of the Provinces of Otranto and Bari. Two out of the nineteenth Madrigals composed by Baseo (Non mi duol il morire and Basciami, vita mia) had already been included in the 1573 collection. Felis’ madrigal (Di vaghe fila d’oro) would be reissued by its composer only in 1585. Effrem’s madrigal (Mentre a l’ombra giacea) has been published only here. The lyrics are largely anonymous (perhaps written by Baseo himself), although, in some cases, they are excerpted from Petrarca’s works (madrigals no. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7), from Ariosto’s (no. 19) or are by the Genovese Oberto Foglietta (madrigal no. 15).
Baseo’s compositional style is particularly refined and solidly grounded. The homorhythmical writing (employed mostly in the beginnings and within some sections when the lyrics require a “choral” treatment, as in madrigals nos. 1 and 4) makes room for a tight counterpoint (madrigals nos. 5 and 12), built with great balance over various textual episodes (madrigals 6 and 13). Rather often, the composer surprises us with exquisitely crafted harmonic solutions (such as on “che gran tempo brami”, in madrigal no. 2, “tal io misero son” in no. 11, “la Speranza morta” in no. 19). It is hard to state with any certainty whence this compositional skill comes, especially since we lack an adequate documentation. However, one thing could be illuminating for this purpose. Baseo’s style, in fact, displays many traits in common with that of other Pugliese composers of his same generation (Giovanni Leonardo Primavera from Barletta, as well as the above-mentioned Stefano Felis and Mutio Effrem from Bari). About them, we know with certainty that they were familiar with the musical circles of Naples between the Fifties and the Seventies of the sixteenth century. At that time, Napoli, in tight synergy with Papal Rome, was welcoming composers of the standing of Philippe De Monte, Orlando di Lasso and Diego Ortiz. It cannot be ruled out, therefore, that Baseo himself might have been familiar with those same circles. This would explain, furthermore, the fact that he possessed first-hand manuscripts of Ortiz, Da Nola, Palestrina and De Monte (this latter was greeted by Felis as the Prince of Music in the Preface to his Sesto Libro dei Madrigali of 1591).
By way of conclusion, there seem to be many roads available to those wishing to cast light on this composer and on the Pugliese output of madrigals. However, the unexpected quality of this collection invites further diving into the mare magnum of the documents to be checked, in order to give back to the present a living memory of this so fecund past.
Gilberto Scordari