The Suite in D minor is the most classical of the six ‘French’ suites. Bach keeps strictly to the usual order of the dances: allemande, courante, sarabande, two minuets, and a gigue. It is an ideal piece for becoming familiar with the genre and the various dance forms in their purest style. The Allemande, an old Germanic folk dance, was developed in France during the 17th and 18th centuries as a court dance. During the early 1800s, this dance transformed into a lively triple-time social dance and became one of the precursors to the Waltz.