Partita

Partita (also partie, partia, parthia, or parthie) closely resemble the dance suites of the Baroque Period (and are often used synonymously with suites) with the addition of a prelude movement at the beginning of each partita. It was originally the name for a single-instrumental piece of music (16th and 17th centuries), but Johann Kuhnau (Thomaskantor at Leipzig until 1722), his student Christoph Graupner, and Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) used it for collections of musical pieces, as a synonym for suite. In the early Baroque period, a partita referred to a string of variations or a piece in parts that reflected different dances.