Partita is a Baroque-era instrumental composition, essentially a suite or collection of stylized dance movements, often starting with a prelude and including dances like the Allemande (German dance in 4/4), Courante (lively French/Italian in triple meter), Sarabande (A slow, dignified Spanish dance in triple meter), and Gigue (A fast, energetic dance of English/Irish origin). These form a coherent whole for a solo instrument or small group, most famously seen in works by J.S. Bach.
Doesn’t really matter. While historically a “partita” is basically a suite of dances, Bach uses the dances as a skeleton of timing and character to build long, intelligent arcs of tension and release. In the solo partitas (1006, 1013) even with one instrument, you can hear chords that aren’t literally played—because the line outlines them so clearly and your brain will fill in the rest. It’s like a perfect pure math proof, you notice how little is wasted. Every notes serves multiple vital purposes.
And the “pure math” here isn’t cold. It’s the pleasure of something being coherent, inevitable, and exact, especially when a lot of life isn’t.