ioned as the protector of tradition: "it grieved [Artusi] to see counterpoint, which had reached a point of ultimate refinement and control, become a prey to caprice and expediency." Monteverdi improvised counterpoint, and generally enlarged the vocabulary of the music of his day; in other words, Monteverdi was an innovator. In a dialogue written in 1600, Artusi printed and analyzed two madrigals that he knew from manuscript copies. Although he withheld the composer's name and the text of the madrigals, historians conclude that Artusi critiqued Monteverdi's Cruda Amarillia and O Mirtillo, later published in the composer's Fifth Book of Madrigals: "Each of the examples cited by Artusi in the 1600 book violates one or more rules of the strict style as taught by [Gioseff] Zarlino and Artusi in their counterpoint books." T
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