Some of the roots of the Colossal Baroque style were in the opulent Florentine Intermedii of the 16th century, commissioned and attended by the powerful Medici family.
La Pellegrina, performed for the wedding of Ferdinand de' Medici to the French princess, Christine of Lorraine, in 1589, featured music for up to seven choirs, by Cristofano Malvezzi in Intermedio VI.
Composers such as Orazio Benevoli, who began his career in Rome, helped spread the style elsewhere, especially across the Brenner Pass into the Austrian lands.
It is possible that the brass may have made dovetailed mass volume answering phrases in a multi-choir texture similar to the effects exploited by Giovanni Gabrieli and the other composers of the Venetian School.
Heinrich Schütz composed a musical setting of Psalm 136, Danket dem Herren, denn er ist freundlich which included three vocal choirs, 12 cornetti and 18 trumpets.