Bercham was a Flemish composer important to the develoment of the madrigal. His contemporaries included the personages of Willaert, Nasco, Parabosco, Ruffo and Camatero. Noted contributions of Berchem include the "probable" first attempt at a madrigal cycle, an extended arrangement (specifically of Ariosto's literary work) with generous units of musical structure adhering the corpus together, implementing the variation of the number of voices between sequential refrains, and the use of "capriccio" to entitle a work. Bercham composed madrigals, masses, and chansons. Other genres are in doubt. ~ Keith Johnson