For many years this sonata was thought to be the work of Johann Sebastian Bach and was listed as BWV 1020 in the BachWerkeVerzeichnis. Most modern scholars now consider it instead to be the work of one of Bach's sons, Carl Philipp Emanuel, who served for many years as a harpsichordist at the court of Crown Prince Frederick (later Frederick the Great of Prussia), who was a flutist. Adding to the shroud of mystery surrounding this work, it has also been listed as a violin sonata, but the absence of double stops and any notes below the lowest note on the flute have given credence to it being intended for the flute.