Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin (Bach)

As Christoph Wolff comments, the paucity of sources for instrumental compositions prior to Bach's period in Leipzig makes it difficult to establish a precise chronology; nevertheless, a copy made by the Weimar organist Johann Gottfried Walther in 1714 of the Fugue in G minor for violin and continuo, BWV 1026, which has violinistic writing similar to that in BWV 1001–1006, provides support for the commonly held view that the collection could have been reworked from pieces originally composed in Weimar.

Bach could have begun composition as early as 1703 during his first Weimar years, having met Johann Paul von Westhoff, a violinist and composer who published a number of works for unaccompanied violin.

Johann Georg Pisendel and Jean-Baptiste Volumier, both talented violinists in the Dresden court, have been suggested as possible performers, as was Joseph Spiess, leader of the orchestra in Köthen.

According to his son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, "in his youth, and until the approach of old age, he played the violin cleanly and powerfully".

Peter Wollny believes one of the copyists may well have been Georg Gottfried Wagner [de], a violinist who played a prominent role in Bach's church performances.

This source was copied from the original autograph manuscript and also includes a number of editorial markings, which may reflect Bach's own musical and technical intentions for these compositions.

Indeed, Ivan Galamian's 1971 edition of the Sonatas and Partitas included a brief foreword by Paul Affelder which erroneously claims the original autograph manuscript was destined for butter-wrappings.

Virtually every great violin performer has recorded the Sonatas and Partitas, often multiple times, as in the case of Joseph Szigeti, Nathan Milstein, Yehudi Menuhin, Henryk Szeryng and many other distinguished players.

One of his students (Serge Blanc) collected the notes of his master Enescu regarding sonority, phrasing, tempo, fingering and expression, in a now freely distributed document.

Although still making use of the usual baroque style of allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue, with some omissions and the addition of galanteries, new elements were introduced into each partita to provide variety.

[8] Though the key signature of the manuscript suggests D minor, such was a notational convention in the Baroque period, and therefore does not necessarily imply that the piece is in the Dorian mode.

The monumental Chaconne, the last and most famous movement of the suite, was regarded as "the greatest structure for solo violin that exists" by Yehudi Menuhin.