French overture
The opening sinfonia is march-like in style, reminiscent of processional music. It includes the dotted rhythms characteristic of the French overture in the opening section, and a contrasting minor-mode middle section in triplets. Two elements, the triplets and rising lines in imitation, return in later movements. The musicologist Julian Mincham concludes that "Bach, even at this early stage, was thinking across the movements and beginning to conceive such compositions as unified entities rather than suite-like potpourris".