Paolo Quagliati

He was a transitional figure between the late Renaissance style and the earliest Baroque and was one of the first to write solo madrigals in the conservative musical center of Rome.

During that time he also served as organist for various formal occasions around the city, and eventually he became private chamberlain to Pope Gregory XV.

These were examples of the new Baroque style of monody, and he states as much in the preface to his 1608 publication: "I have decided to cater to both tastes."

Conventionally, a canzona around 1600 was a sectional instrumental piece, while a ricercar was a rather severe contrapuntal study, one of the ancestors of the fugue; the work of a few composers such as Quagliati make it necessary to qualify these terms as being of imprecise usage.

In 1606 he composed Il carro di fedeltà d'amore, which is considered the first secular 'azione scenica'[1] in Rome.