D'India is remembered primarily for his monodies and asserting, through his music, that the basso continuo could not genuinely replace polyphonic composition. The compositions of d'India demonstrated keen lyric qualities and craftsmanship. Historically he served in the courts of Maria de'Medici, Queen Mother of France, Carlo Emanuele I, Duke of Savoy in Turin, the Este court at Modena, for Cardinal Maurizio of Savoy, and Maximilian I of Bavaria. When not employed directly in service to a court, d'India worked in Parma and Piacenza composing music for diverse celebrations. Having written eighty four chamber monodies (to reiterate the fact that this medium was his forte), one fourth of them were strophic arias. The solo motets utilized through-composed bass lines with several types of melodic writing giving deep-felt expression to the anguish of rejected lovers. With a flair for the dramatic, d'India composed with chormaticisms, interestingly placed rests, and, at times, would combine several lines of text into one. The duets composed by d'India were often set for soprano and bass voices, two sopranos or two tenors, with alterations between points of imitation and block harmonies. He gave expression to other secular themes in his eight books of polyphonic madrigals. D'India was considered to be the possible successor of Gesualdo in this medium for his music was styled with extensive and flowing melodic phrases harmonized in chordal style. He employed conflicting key-signatures with a continuo part that was obligatory in some pieces. Books two through seven of the madrigals indicate d'India's musical relationships with Gesualdo, Marenzio, Wert and Monteverdi. In book eight of the madrigals, he returned to the continuo madrigal utilizing textual soliloquies and narrative passages. ~ Keith Johnson, Rovi