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Virtually upon taking his seat at the Saxon helm, Johann Georg II initiated a program of musico-liturgical reform that would take six years to bring to full fruition, and which would culminate in his Kirchen-Ordnung (“church order”), the codification of both the schedule of feasts and liturgical forms that would remain in use in the chapel until his death in 1680. His program of reform, which was doubtless undertaken in consultation with court preacher Jacob Weller, advanced in three basic stages: the establishment of the number and nature of services to be celebrated on feast days throughout the liturgical year; the musical enhancement of the various liturgies; and finally, the promulgation of his Kirchen-Ordnung and its realization in the chapel liturgies.

Earlier scholars failed to note the long continuation of the choral liturgy in Lutheran churches because (1) when liturgical scholarship began among 19th-century Lutherans, scholars were familiar only with a congregational liturgy and assumed it had been that way since the start of the Reformation; (2) earlier scholars were mainly trying to reconstruct original liturgical forms, not asking how the forms were used; (3) the goal of 19th and early 20th-century scholars was usually to reconstitute early Lutheran liturgy and hymnody in the modern service, not to undertake scholarly investigation; and (4) most scholars consulted official liturgies, which transmit liturgical prescriptions, but not visitation records, which convey what actually took place in churches.

Through his consistent patronage of Italian musicians and his demonstrable predilection for the musical idiom of modern Italy, Johann Georg II effectively opened a new musical age in Dresden, and permanently altered the soundscape in the electoral court chapel, once dominated by the music of Heinrich Schüt. In order to accomplish the sweeping changes that he had already begun to envision in the 1640s, he reached beyond the boundaries of his own land, language, and confession, and augmented his Hofkapelle with foreign virtuoso singers and composers. But the most unusual role filled by Johann Georg during his reign as elector was that of liturgist. Rather than concede all liturgical responsibility to his court preacher, he demonstrated a keen personal interest in the manner in which worship was celebrated at court and took a firm hand in developing the liturgical forms to be used in the chapel. It is from the perspective of aesthetic achievement, rather than that of political accomplishment, that the legacy of Johann Georg II is best assessed, for in this realm his contributions are significant and can be counted alongside those of his aspirational peers in Bavaria and Austria.