In parallel to what was done by painters and sculptors, composers of the Counter-Reformation regaled in sensual, chromatic harmonies, and associated them with poetry: if musica reservata was appropriate for the madrigal and profane monody, it would be suitable also to adore the most beloved women of the Catholic world, the Virgin Mary, whose cult identified Catholicism against heresy. The refined atmosphere of the Roman aristocracy—which, decades later, also host the experimental cantatas by Alessandro Scarlatti and the young Händel—was the ideal environment for the development of such an exquisite style—affordable for the attentive listener, and sometimes hypnotic, like in the Nanna.

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