Claudio Monteverdi's historical position in music has been compared to that of Shakespeare in literature: almost exact contemporaries, each worked from traditional beginnings to transform nearly every genre he attempted. In this book, Massimo Ossi delves into the most significant aspect of Monteverdi's career: the development, during the first years of the 17th century, of a new compositional style he called the seconda prattica or second manner. found himself at the centre of a debate between defenders of Renaissance principles and the newest musical currents of the time. The principles of...