strates music practices that are more indicative of the early Baroque with his use of homophony throughout his setting of Psalm 110. It is obvious that Monteverdi used a blend of old and new styles of writing music, which makes him one of the great pioneers in defining the Baroque period. Monteverdi also had musica ficta present in his music, which was not in practice by the end of the Baroque period and was really a leftover from the Renaissance. Domenico Scarlatti demonstrates the advances made throughout the Baroque period in his piece. He is able to use leading tones and dissonance as a result of Monteverdis somewhat controversial composition style. It is hard to decide how really different the pieces really are because the Psalm was not each composers best known work, since both composers are best remembered for their secular pieces, although each spent time as the head of the music at some sort of church. Monteverdi is best known for his books of madrigals. Scarlatti is best known for his binary-form sets of sonatas he composed while living in Portugal. There is no earth-shattering conclusion to be drawn from the comparison of these two pieces. The progression of the Baroque is duly noted, and each composer has his definite style. The nature of each piece is such that it is difficult to do anything besides note the differences, since the pieces are so similar. But perhaps that is what is most striking about the pieces. It is concluded that the pieces are similar because of the location of the composers in their formative years. It seems that indirectly Scarlatti may have learned a lot from Monteverdi, since Monteverdis ideas did become popular, so it may have been a bad idea to try to compare the two composers. Originally, the thought was that the composers would not be so much alike, since they belong to opposite ends of the Baroque period. It seems that just being from the same country influences how they write,...
