The publication of the B flat major Partita in 1726 marked the beginning of Johann Sebastian Bach's ambitious conception of his four-part Clavier-Übung. In contrast to some of his contemporaries, Bach published only a few of his musical works during his lifetime. His decision to enter the uncertain business terrain of expensive music printing for the first time with this piece must have been based on special developmental circumstances. Even if we can only speculate about the specific reasons, an overview of the entire collection can at least provide plausible hypotheses regarding Bach's motives.

In the period that followed, Bach composed and printed another keyboard partita every year (in some cases reusing works that had already been written), until in 1731 the collection was (re-)published as a whole: "Clavir-Übung / angebracht in / Praeludien, Allemanden, Couranten, Sarabanden, Giguen, / Minuets, und anderen Galanterien", declared to be Opus 1 of the Thomaskantor.

The Israeli harpsichordist David Shemer, one of the leading figures in his country's early music scene, has recorded a complete recording of this work in Christ Church in Jerusalem, which is now available as a double CD. The instrument used, a Franco-Flemish-style harpsichord from 2001 by Martin Skowroneck of Bremen, is tuned to a' = 392 Hz, a whole step below the "modern" a'. This tuning, one of several used in Bach's time, gives the instrument a particularly dark, soft sound. For each partita, a specific tuning system was chosen that best suits the key and character of the piece.