The late sixteenth century witnessed the transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque style of music. Gesualdo used chromaticism to an unprecedented degree in his attempts to express Baroque "affections'' using primarily Renaissance techniques. The polychoral style of the Venetians anticipated the concertato principle of the Baroque, and in homorhythmic passages the texture of homophony.

Around the turn of the seventeenth century, the Florentine Camerata introduced monody, the solo singing style that led to the Baroque recitative and aria.