Questo specchio is a very gentle madrigal, at times so subdued it's almost innocuous. Elements of traditional Renaissance polyphonic style and of Monteverdi's progressive use of harmony are blended in varying degrees of completeness; some of the lovely homophonic chord-melodies, like at "Cara fanciulla...," one of the most charming single moments in the madrigal, functionally its climax, are totally progressive. Nothing matters but the chords being spelled out, and the tonal sense is completely Baroque. Elsewhere we're in that wondrous land only Monteverdi can take us to, where the music behaves outwardly like it did in the enaissance but sounds like Baroque. It gives us imitative polyphony for a modern, vertical-listening ear, in the latter part of Questo specchio ti dono especially. Still other places, near the beginning mostly, it is a traditional madrigal through and through.

One thing that must be said for Questo is that it's far more subtle than Monteverdi generally is. At first hearing it almost doesn't seem like he's taken advantage of the excellent opportunities the text provides him to create picturesque music. A closer listen however shows that he's his old self; the hilarity of the staggered imitative outburst on "se ciò mio..." is unmistakeable. But compared to many other works in Book 2, it almost feels like an inside joke that we can't really grasp. The very soft landing of the final cadence underscores that sensation—madrigal as friendly, but mischieviously smirking riddle. We suspect that that riddle, or in-joke, has something to do with the way the old and new are interacting and with the degree of the dramatic posturing, but it's hard to know. Questo specchio guards its secret well.

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