Una donna fra l'altre bears the designation "stile concertato," which means "in concerted style." It indicates that the music is in two distinct layers: a set of voices up top, their parts composed in a soloistic style that takes no responsibility for the harmonic push of the work, over an underlying basso continuo. The traditional order of importance, solo voice versus group texture is reversed; the beauty of the lone voice is now the musical object of adoration. Each of the five voices is concerted at a different point, set off alone on the basso continuo, while the recurring group sections are like commentaries on the solos. In fact by 1614, when Book 6 was published, polyphonic madrigals were rapidly becoming an anachronism before the growing demand for monody, which by its nature, spotlights the sound of the virtuoso singer.

Una donna shows just how fundamental the question of vocal color is to conception of this new music. Since at least Book 2 Monteverdi had been using vocal color in a brilliant way, with more seductive assurance than any composer before him. Una donna comes across like a recipe for a "color fugue," if such a thing is possible. He presents each voice in a solo capacity and/or in duet with another during the first half, so that we get a taste of every ingredient on its own, before it's mixed into the final dish. In the second half, once we know intimately what's going into the mix, we get a somewhat fluffy approximation of polyphony that's actually just a vehicle for the mixing of vocal colors. We now hear these gorgeously blended in constantly shifting arrangements, and we're left to savor the delicious varieties of combinations. This madrigal dates as far back as 1609, showing how early Monteverdi was becoming confident in the new style.

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