Benedetto Pallavicino composed ten books of madrigals as well as a number of masses and motets. As an Italian composer he served well as a prolific composer and as an organist in Cremona and then at Sabbioneta. His last station occurred when he succeeded Wert as the master of the chapel (choir master) at the Mantuan court preceding Monteverdi. Some of the madrigals that Pallavicino set were the first to be scored for twelve to sixteen voices. ~ Keith Johnson, Rovi