 There are two separate styles of madrigals written for and inspired by the concerto delle donne. The first is the "luxuriant" style of the 1580s. The second is music in the style of the seconda pratica, written in the 1590s. Luzzaschi wrote music in both of these styles. The style of the earlier period, as exemplified in the works of Luzzaschi, involves the use of madrigal texts written by poets within the Ferrarese sphere, such as Tasso and G.B. Guarini. These poems tend to be short and witty with single sections. Musically, Luzzaschi's works are highly sectionalized and based on melodic themes, rather than harmonic structures. Luzzaschi lessens the sectionalizing effect of his compositional techniques by weakening cadences. His tendency to reiterate melodies in different voices, including the bass voice, leads to tonal creations which are sometimes bewildering. These aspects make Luzzaschi's music much more polyphonic than Monteverdi's later compositions, and thus more conservative; however, Luzzaschi's use of jarring melodic leaps and harmonic dissonance are individualistic. These dissonances, which contrast sharply with the careful treatment of dissonance during most of the 16th century, is closely connected with the ornamented polyphonic madrigals of the concerto delle donne. In Giovanni Artusi's socratic dialogue, the character defending Monteverdi connects haphazard treatment of dissonance with ornamental singing.
