Drawing on the Baroque (1600-1750) cannon, consider sacred works from:

• France
• Roman Catholic Italy
• Lutheran Germany
• The Church of England

Key features:

Stile Antico (modal, polyphonic, text fitted to the music) 

v. 

Stile Moderno (diatonic, more monodic, music fitted to text)

- contrast: timbres, textures, terraced dynamics

- instrumental technology (viols to violins, blockflüte/recorder to transverse flute, lute/theorbo to cello or bass)

- expressive emphasis (mood)

- Influence of secular music (popular melodies, dance forms, folk influences)

- development of the ORCHESTRA with basso continuo providing harmonic continuity

new forms: oratorio & cantata (adding arias and recitatives)

The Baroque Period

Biograview (among many others) offers a good overview of the Baroque Period

Some background:

Some of the earliest formal composition in Western culture exists for religious reasons. Plainchant is the music of the early Christian Church.  This monophonic music was dominant in the Church up until about the 9th Century, when it forms the basis of developing polyphony.

A little background knowledge of the Renaissance Mass would be a good starting point:

Music in the Church at the start of the Baroque Period

The mass ordinary and the Proper (for particular feasts, Saints' Days etc)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordinary_(liturgy)

You should also be aware of the Requiem Mass:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requiem

Lutheran Germany

JS Bach  

Recommended:

Halt im Gedächtnis Jesum Christ(cantataBWV 67)-Hold Christ in remembrance (16 April 1724)

Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140 (25 Nov 1731)

Chorales:

Zion hört die Wächter singen - from BWV 140 - appears twice, once as mvt 4 (chorale melody sung by tenors, with countermelody in strings), then as Mvt 7 (full 4 part chorale) 'Gloria sei dir gesungen

Start 15:12 for Zion hört, start 26:42 for Gloria sei die gesungen

Ach Gott und Herr - from Cantata BWV 48- Ich elender Mensch - text 'Solls ja so sein'

(also used as organ prelude in BWV255, also set by Buxtehude as a chorale prelude for organ)

Both G.F. Handel and J.S. Bach wanted to follow Buxtehude at St. Mary's, Lübeck, but neither one wanted to marry his daughter as that was a condition for the position.

Komm, süsser Todd - one of 69 religious songs and arias contributed to the Schemellis Songbook  (BWV 439–507) published in 1736

Christ lag in Todesbanden forms basis for Cantata BWV 4 - Easter 1707 -  text by Luther

USEFUL OVERVIEWS:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venetian_School_(music)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Gabrieli

France: Motets

Lully: Domine salvum fac Regem LWV77/14

This work is the final 'movement' of a Grand Motet written in 17

Found at: https://groups.google.com/g/rec.music.classical/c/Tw0htNXln-Q?pli=1

There is a nice side-story to this: in 1686, Lully composed a Frenchversion of the fac salvum in honor of Louis XIV, and it was sung by theyoung girls of the school of Saint-Cyr, whose protector was Mme de Maintenon, mistress of the king. Mme de Maintenon loved it, and introducedit to the court of the exiled Stuarts in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, who adopted it for their own. In 1745, the Jacobites were singing this hymn at Culloden, and it was also adopted by the loyalists, to become..."God save the King". Three former pensioners of St-Cyr testified in 1819 that the British hymn was part of the school's repertoire of hymns from the early 18th c. on, and there is a clock in Versailles from the first half of the 18th c whose chimes play "God Save the King".

Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology dismisses the story as "too absurd", of course. My reference is the Quid 1992, but I don't know where they got their information. It is a fact that the earliest appearance of "God Save the King" is in 1745.

I expect a flood of denials from ever...@everywhere.uk, but I still like the story. An Austrian wrote the German anthem, a German wrote the French anthem, a Frenchman wrote the English anthem, an Englishman wrote the American anthem...