St. Mark's at this time also began to employ a second organist (it was Claudio Merulo for the last eight years of Padovano's tenure), which allowed two simultaneous, spatially separated organs to perform in the huge space of the cathedral: this was a key development in music of the Venetian school, which was already using spatially separated choirs of voices.
Many Venetian musicians left their native area to seek their fortunes in Habsburg domains, which generally remained friendly to Venice.
He was a notable early composer of ricercars, a predecessor of the fugue; many of the themes he used derived from plainchant, but he included considerable ornamentation in the melodic lines.
In addition he often broke the theme up for motivic development in a surprisingly "modern" way, anticipating the developmental techniques of the common practice period.
Usually he included imitative interpolations between improvisatory sections, and also meter changes from duple to triple, anticipating later music of the Venetian school.