The notion of consciously performing the works of Johann Sebastian Bach in a Baroque fashion, with Baroque forces, is a relatively recent development. Indeed, it is an idea that has taken firm hold only in the past fifty years. When we look back on the history of Bach's music – its birth in the Baroque, its eclipse in the Classical Period, its rediscovery in the Romantic era, and its canonisation in modern times – we find that musicians took many different approaches to playing it. The issues of what we now call ‘performance practice’ have constantly changed.

The Baroque era itself was a period of considerable stylistic self-consciousness, and this self-consciousness affected the way pieces were performed. As a German, Bach took an eclectic approach towards composition, calculatedly calling on aspects of at least five national styles: German, French, Italian, English and Polish. Each style implied particular forms, gestures, and – most importantly – modes of performance. For instance, the Overture in B Minor BWV 831, written in the French style ('nach Französischer Art’ as Bach put it), contains rhythms in the opening section that attempt to record the sharply dotted ‘French’ performing style. When Bach revised the early, C minor, version of this Overture, BWV 831a, for inclusion in Clavier-Übung II (where it is paired with an Italian Concerto ‘nach Italiaenischen Gusto’), he sharpened the rhythms to bring the execution more closely into line with the French manner of playing (Example 13.1). That is to say, he intentionally bowed to the conventions of French performance practice.