Claudio Monteverdi was a late Renaissance composer born in Cremona on 15 May 1567 and died in Venice on 29 November 1643. His emerging writing style had a significant influence on the musical transitions from the Renaissance to Baroque age. He was an employed musician for much of his life and spent much of his work challenging the popular artists of his time to venture into new variations of traditional styles. Along with many of his contemporaries such as Giaches de Wert and Prince Gesualdo of Venosa, he was part of a subtle change in the culture in which he lived that had a great impact for the future. In his early years Monteverdi was taught to play the piano and also taught musical composition by Marc'Antonio Ingegneri, who was director of the cathedral choir in his city. It wasn't long before Monteverdi began to understand what he was being taught. In fact, his first piece was written at the young age of 15, foreshadowing his passion which would be a life lived with dedication and pleasure in writing music. Although he is not recorded as being involved in the public worship choir, Monteverdi was surrounded by musical performances and worship on a regular basis. His lessons, taught by Engineers, were the springboard to what he would learn over the course of his time. In Cremona he was taught to be controlled and traditional, as noted by George J. Beulow in chapter three of his book, A History of Byzantine Music. He said: "Monteverdi's art was cultivated in a musical environment that was more conservative than experimental." (P.57) While Monteverdi was learning the basic principles of composition and music theory, one of these concepts was particularly important and that was counterpoint. Throughout the... middle of the paper... realistic portrayal of characters and warmer melodies than previously heard. It requires a smaller orchestra and has a less prominent role for the choir. Monteverdi's work will be remembered as revolutionary and somewhat radical for its time. He continued to remain faithful to many of the previous methods such as counterpoint, but changed many things and looked for ways to express lyrical content better than before. His attraction to the Madrigal is a good example of his ability to do so, shown in his nine books. Expressive verbal phrases and moods were also shown in his works where he told longer love stories and ancient tales. In every style in which Monteverdi wrote it, he will be remembered as a composer who was faithful to the fundamental principles of the old styles, but who took bold steps to form new sounds that would influence future works of art..