By the 1970s, the "classical" guitar was enjoying immense popularity, largely through the efforts of Andrés Segovia, yet little important music for the instrument was then being written. Walton's song cycle with guitar Anon in Love (1959), commissioned by the tenor Peter Pears and the English guitarist Julian Bream, had demonstrated the composer's confident and imaginative approach to the instrument, and in 1971 Bream commissioned from Walton a set of solo works.

While Bream's interpretations were an artistic success, the Five Bagatelles have never been prominent in the twentieth century guitar repertory. In addition to their considerable technical difficulties, they lack the traditional Latin/Spanish associations that were integral to the spread of the guitar's popularity from the 1960s onwards. (The third, however, is a study in a slow Cuban rhythm.)

After their first performance at the Bath Festival in 1972, a critic cautiously observed that the bagatelles "showed Walton's professionalism in writing for solo guitar while yet retaining his own personality." Walton later transcribed them for piano and, in 1976, as a suite for orchestra titled Varii Cappricci. After playing the bagatelles during a visit to Walton, Bream was surprised to learn that the composer had forgotten he had originally written them for guitar!

As the title implies, the bagatelles are modestly scaled and playful in style, with wayward harmonies, quirky rhythms, and an elusive tunefulness. The fourth contains battente effects—a rapid thrumming of the player's hand across all six strings—and the final Waltz avoids sentimentality at the last moment by ending with a sharp knock on the body of the instrument.

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