A partita is an old instrumental form of the Baroque era, a variety of the suite — a cycle of several contrasting movements. For the most part a partita consists of a series of stylised dance pieces united by a common key: the allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue, as well as various additional dances (minuet, gavotte, bourrée).
At first the word “partita” meant a single variation, but later it became attached to the multi-movement dance cycle. Unsurpassed models of the genre were created by Johann Sebastian Bach — his partitas for harpsichord, for solo violin, and for flute belong to the summits of Baroque music. The partita allowed a composer to combine diverse characters, tempos, and rhythms in a single work, showing all the versatility of the instrument and of his own mastery.
