Grandi experimented with extreme emotionalism in some of his music, with chromaticism, ornament, and affectation. While harmonically he was not as adventurous as Gesualdo, he was connected to the larger tradition, and thus his works were almost as influential as Monteverdi's. He ceaselessly innovated, writing monodies with instruments such as violins, and in a sectional form with repeating parts for instruments only—an idea which would develop into the "ritornello." The music of Grandi shows a link between the "concertato" style which began the Baroque era, and the form of the cantata which culminated in the work of J.S. Bach.