German Baroque composers wrote for small ensembles including strings, brass, and woodwinds, as well as choirs, pipe organ, harpsichord, and clavichord. During the Baroque period, numerous large-scale music forms were defined that lasted into later periods when they were expanded and evolved further, including the fugue, the invention, the sonata, and Music Instruction the concerto.

Music is composed and performed for multifold purposes, ranging from aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, or as an entertainment product for the marketplace. Amateur musicians compose and perform music for their own pleasure, and they do not derive their income from music. Professional musicians are employed by a gamut of institutions and organisations, including armed forces, churches and synagogues, symphony orchestras, broadcasting or film production companies, and measure schools. Professional musicians sometimes exertion as freelancers, seeking contracts and engagements in a disparateness of settings.