Kreisler had composed this piece, among others, in the attempt to expand the violin repertoire while avoiding giving himself credit to a large extent. The idea behind it was to increase the repertoire he had available to him for concerts without audiences feeling there was too much 'kreisler' on a program. Thus, Fritz would compose pieces like the Praeludium and Allegro in the styles of other composers and credit them with authorship. In this case, credit was given to Gaetano Pugnani. The Praeludium et Allegro was originally written for the violin in E minor, but it has been very popular viola for decades.