Stile concertato in the context of "A cappella"

In music, monody refers to a solo vocal style distinguished by having a single melodic line and instrumental accompaniment. Although such music is found in various cultures throughout history, the term is specifically applied to Italian song of the early 17th century, particularly the period from about 1600 to 1640. The term is used both for the style and for individual songs (so one can speak both of monody as a whole as well as a particular monody). The term itself is a recent invention of scholars. No composer of the 17th century ever called a piece a monody. Compositions in monodic form might be called madrigals, motets, or even concertos (in the earlier sense of stile concertato, meaning "with instruments").

In poetry, the term monody has become specialized to refer to a poem in which one person laments another's death. (In the context of ancient Greek literature, monody, μονῳδία, could simply refer to lyric poetry sung by a single performer, rather than by a chorus.)

In music, a chorale monody was a type of a sacred composition of the very early German Baroque era. It was for solo voice and accompanying instruments, usually basso continuo, and was closely related to the contemporary Italian style of monody. Almost all examples of chorale monodies were written in the first half of the 17th century.

A chorale monody used the text of a chorale, but rarely if ever used the chorale tune, at least not in a recognizable form. It was also related to the concertato madrigal, another contemporary Italian form. While the vocal part in Schein's early examples of the genre retained the rhythmic and melodic flexibility of the Italian monody, he replaced the rhythmically vague bass lines of his model with a stricter rhythmic beat in the instrumental accompaniment. The chorale monody formed the basis for the later development of the solo cantata.