Verdonck was a late representative of the Italian madrigal style in northern Europe, and was unusual in that he wrote madrigals in Italian without ever going to Italy. Stylistically he was relatively conservative, shunning the innovations of the early Baroque around 1600, including monody and the basso continuo, preferring instead to work in the polyphonic vocal style of the late 16th century. In the preface to a 1599 collection of madrigals, he wrote scathingly of the decline of musical standards in his native land, which had once been the musical center of Europe: "whether these sweet harmonies have been interrupted by the tempests of Mars, who has too long been master of these provinces, or whether music has ceased to be esteemed by those who, filled with confusion ..., cannot value what is full of agreement and harmony."