 Around this time, Richard Dering's style of composition is considered to have undergone a sharp change, adopting a more Italianate style.In 1617 Dering went to live in Brussels, the capital of the Spanish Netherlands, a region of the Low Countries which was under the rule of the Spanish Empire and was consequently Roman Catholic.A number of other English composers had taken up residence there, among them Peter Philips and John Bull, and it is thought that Dering became acquainted with them.