These sonatas, rare examples of the composer’s chamber music, have come down to us through the collection of Sébastien de Brossard, who, it seems from his preface, did not know Clérambault very well. Nor does he make any assessment of the music, unlike his descriptions of the sonatas by Jacquet de La Guerre ("lovely") or Jean-Féry Rebel ("magnificent"), even though they are just as beautiful. The many errors in this manuscript suggest that it was copied very quickly, and in some cases probably from separate parts.

Their dating is uncertain: Catherine Cessac assumes that they belong to the "first generation" of French sonatas, at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries.

The complete Brossard manuscript is published in two volumes: the first contains sonatas with a small number of players: 1 or 2 dessus, a basse de violon (often optional), and basso continuo.

For performance purposes, the parts are available separately.