These six little Suites, to which, in the course of time, the by-name 'French' was applied because they were written in the French Style of that period (being similar to those by F. Couperin), are here presented in a new edition after an original MS., with emendations by J.S. Bach's own hand, said MS. having been found among F. W. Rust's literary remains. It contains, however only the first four Suites, the fifth and sixth, added later to the series by Bach, owe much of their corrections to an old edition by M. Clementi.
On the whole, the style of these Suites is free, rather than scholastic, and they are of moderate technical difficulty.