Final answer:
After Palestrina's ars perfecta, Counter-Reformation composers embraced Baroque elements such as expressive harmonies, dramatic intensity, and elaborate polyphony, indicating a move away from balanced and smooth textures towards more emotionally expressive and dynamically contrasted music.
Step-by-step explanation:
Composers pursuing responses to the Counter-Reformation after Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina adopted qualities that departed from the reserved and balanced style of the ars perfecta tradition. Baroque architecture and music, emerging during the Counter-Reformation, were characterized by dramatic intensity, expressive emotions, and an embodiment of the Catholic Church’s wealth and power. The period saw an embrace of expressive harmonies and the breakdown of modal music, leading towards tonality, which is indicative of the Late Renaissance and early Baroque styles. In contrast to ars perfecta, which stressed harmonic balance and smooth polyphony, composers of the Baroque engaged in the exploration of more dramatic and dynamic contrasts in their music, using polyphony with greater independence among voices and a wider vocal range, which at times included secular elements such as the madrigal being adapted for religious purposes.