Monteverdi! My favorite music history professor, Dr. Sheveloff, gave a memorable metaphor for Monteverdi: a colossus with one foot in the Renaissance and the other foot in the Baroque. One unique thing about Monteverdi, is that even though his scorings for instruments and ensembles repay close attention, every surviving composition of his (entire compositions, not excerpts) has the human voice in it, and words to be sung. "Primo la parola, doppo la musica."

Have you heard "Con che soavitá"? brief, bold, and beautiful.