Bach's six Solo Cello Suites were composed while Kapellmeister in Cöthen, at a time when he was preoccupied with commissions for new works of instrument music of all kinds. The Cello Suites are more or less contemporaneous with the six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, but these unprecedented solo cello pieces were even more radical. Each of the Cello Suites features a selection of dances, and become progressively more complex, from the beautiful simplicity of the First Suite to the incredibly virtuosic the Sixth. Each suite has a unique character that is introduced by the initial prelude movement preceding the series of dances.