This madrigal from Monteverdi's second book for five voices begins in an atmosphere of serene quiet entirely appropriate to the opening words of the text "sweetly slept my Cloris...." Monteverdi had in fact been working hard, while patiently waiting to stand up and take his place among the madrigal composers of his day. It's in Book 2 that his place is finally assured, and the extraordinary commercial success of Book 3 points backwards to the reputation founded by this one. The hallmark of the madrigalist's skill was how imaginatively he expressed the text. Here, as elsewhere in Book 2, Monteverdi at last shows his true genius in this regard.

The use of chordal writing throughout is so natural sounding, so unforced, that listeners are gently, magically carried along, as in a pleasant dream. The bass comes along only rarely. It's present in homophonic passages, but other than that it's reserved for the ending. Lack of bass, of course, makes the music slightly ethereal. Monteverdi counters that effect somewhat with his light declamatory passages, homophonic or polyphonic, but without bass there is still a general impression of feathery weightlessness, his interruptions of which only seem intended to tickle and further seduce listeners.

So it's a pleasant, double-headed surprise when the bass joins in for the final passages. Not only is the bass finally singing a line on his own, an inherently beautiful sound, but it's a Baroque, continuo-like line, not just an extra polyphonic layer. The color changes for the better, yes, but the whole modus operandi of the music changes, too; listeners are suddenly skipped ahead by several decades. And the square, predictable manner of Baroqueharmony gives a satisfying sense of finality that nothing else can. Introducing new features to an essentially traditional style this way, Monteverdi indelibly marks himself a place within the old school, whilst boldly laying the foundations of a new one.

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