One of the most obvious characteristics of his music is the extravagant text setting of words representing extremes of emotion : `` love '' , `` pain '' , `` death '' , `` ecstasy '' , `` agony '' and other similar words occur frequently in his madrigal texts , most of which he probably wrote himself .

The words of his madrigals are often very emotional : they are about `` love '' , `` pain '' , `` death '' , `` ecstasy '' , `` agony '' .
