The article is concerned with the function of music in the 17th and 18th centuries as a means of communication. Since his youth, the author has immersed himself in historical sources on the art of composition and has acquired the ability to compose in various baroque styles. He takes care to follow the working method of a baroque composer as consistently as possible. First, he gives a brief outline of where his interest in composing in historical styles originated. The main section of the article discusses the various compositional means that composers used to write music that expressed the particular affections of the underlying texts and let the listeners feel them for themselves. The composers used the art of rhetoric as a model when approaching the compositional process. Finally, on the basis of two of his own works, the author provides insights into his working methods. An Entrée in the French style serves as an example for the composition of instrumental music. With the help of a recitative from a completion of Bach's lost score of the St. Mark Passion, the author explains various aspects of vocal composition; the difficulties in dealing with prose texts; and his own possible solutions to them.