 His work, together with that of Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber and Johann Jakob Walther, greatly influenced the subsequent generation of German violinists, and the six partitas for solo violin inspired Johann Sebastian Bach's famous violin sonatas and partitas.The composer was born in the Dresden, then capital of Saxony.He received a solid musical education as a pupil of Heinrich Schütz (d. 1672), and in 1674 joined the Dresden Hofkapelle, where his father, a former Swedish cavalry officer, Friedrich von Westhoff worked.