With the above heading, Johann Sebastian Bach brought his first self-published opus to the general public. It hardly needs to be said that these six partitas are neither Bach’s first works, nor even are they the first set of six suites that he is known to have composed, with the so-called English Suites composed ca. 1715, and the French Suites only slightly later.

If the French suites are not especially French, and the English Suites even less English, each of these sets can be said to feature a certain homogeneity, with the French Suites each containing a fairly straightforward succession of dance movements – allemande, courante, sarabande, gigue – as established in the generations before Bach. Extra movements – gavottes, airs, bourrées, menuets – even a polonaise and a louré – are found between the sarabande and the gigue.

The English Suites follow the same suite of standard movements, but each begins with an extended fugal prélude.