Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, music continued to play a very important religious role within community life. Music could move and involve a congregation, intensifying the spiritual experience. Although Protestants were skeptical of visual displays and the use of statues, paintings, and ornaments in church, they approved of the use of music during church services. Thus, in the 17th century, major Protestant congregations began forming orchestras and choirs, hiring organists, soloists, and music masters in the process.

As in previous periods, much of the music was produced for religious purposes. However, during the Baroque period, it became common practice for composers to write secular music for all types of ceremonies, including marriages and other private occasions. Another important development during this period was that churches and orphanages started providing music education for talented young boys (and sometimes girls) who manifested the desire to become musicians.

Most choral works of the time were sacred music. In the Catholic Church, Baroque composers were still required to conform to the stile antico (literally "ancient style") of polyphonic writing à la Palestrina; i.e., in the smooth polyphonic "Palestrina style" that minimizes the use of dissonance and strives for text clarity above all. Several composers, notably the Venetian Antonio Lotti (c. 1667-1740), created some magnificent music in this style. Lotti's sacred choral music used the older polyphonic form to express poignant, Baroque emotions. His Crucifixus, with text taken from the Catholic Creed, is a relatively short but nevertheless intense piece from its gradual build up of the voice parts—including sparing use of dissonance to emphasize Christ's agony—to the reiteration of Christ's suffering under Pontius Pilate and his death. Notice that rather than ending in the minor key in which the piece is written, the last chord closes the piece in a bright major key, as if to stress the positive consequences of Christ's suffering.