If we ask why Johann Sebastian Bach grouped his pieces for solo violin into "Sonatas" and "Partitas," the answer lies immediately in the works of his predecessors, and primarily in Johann Adam Reincken's Hortus Musicus.

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Bach was familiar with these pieces and transcribed them for the harpsichord, as he often did with compositions he greatly admired. This combination of sonata form and dance suites aptly illustrates the evolution of 17th-century German instrumental music, which consisted mainly music for dancing at the beginning of the century.

Several innovations took root in Germany with the arrival of the Italians and particularly Carlo Farina at the Dresden court in the 1620s: the first of these was the prominent role given to the violin, followed by the new forms of Italian music, the solo sonata and the trio sonata. It quickly became apparent how they combined genres in an original way, readily blending dance movements with sonata structures and with their alternations of slow and fast tempos. They also remained ardent defenders of the viola da gamba, especially the bass viol, which they often placed in dialogue with the violin. This combination of the viola da gamba and violins, and of the sonata and suite, quickly became a defining characteristic of this repertoire.

This program also illustrates the journey that Johann Sebastian Bach made (partly on foot, we are led to believe) from his native Thuringia to the major northern cities of Lübeck and Hamburg, where he met Böhm, Buxtehude and Reinken.