Suites Pour Violoncelle Seul

The Six Suites for Solo Cello, BWV 1007 to 1012, are unaccompanied cello suites by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). They are among the most frequently performed works for solo cello. Bach most likely composed them between 1717 and 1723, while he was Kapellmeister at Köthen. The title on the cover of Anna Magdalena Bach's manuscript was Suites à Violoncello Solo senza Basso (Suites for Solo Cello without Bass).

As in any Baroque suite, each suite opens with a prelude, and the other movements are based on Baroque dance types. Each suite comprises six movements: prelude, allemande, courante, sarabande, two minuets, bourrées or gavottes, and a final gigue. Gary S. Dalkin of MusicWeb International describes them as "among the most profound works in all of classical music". In 1980, Wilfrid Mellers described them as "monophonic music in which a man created a dance of God".

Because of their technical demands, their character as studies, and the difficulties of interpretation posed by the surviving copies, which are unannotated and often divergent, these suites were little known and rarely performed in public in the modern era, until Pablo Casals (1876-1973) recorded them at the beginning of the twentieth century. They have since been performed and recorded by many renowned cellists and transcribed for other instruments. They are regarded as one of Bach's greatest musical achievements.