menuet

A minuet: typically 'a stately dance in triple time' (Bridgeman images) The origins of the minuet – a stately dance in triple time – are blurred. Its name may derive from the French 'menu' ('slender'), denoting the small, neat steps of the dance.

Lesson Summary A minuet is a name for a style of dance and for the piece of music that accompanies it. Minuets were popular at the court of King Louis XIV, where they were considered aristocratic and dignified. In longer pieces of music, it was common for composers to write a minuet as one of the piece's movements.

Musically, the minuet is in moderate triple time (as 3/4 or 3/8) with two sections: minuet and trio (actually a second minuet, originally for three instruments; it derives from the ballroom practice of alternating two minuets). Each consists of two repeated phrases (AA–BB), but the repetition may be varied (AA′–BB′).

Minuet. A minuet, also spelled menuet, is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in 3/4 time. The word was adapted from Italian minuetto and French menuet, meaning small, pretty, delicate, a diminutive of menu, from the Latin minutus; menuetto is a word that occurs only on musical scores.

Christian PetzoldMinuet in G major, BWV Anh. 114 / Composer The first one dates from 1722, and contains only works from J. S. Bach, while the second one, dating from 1725, is a compilation of music by both Bach and other composers of the era. This G Major minuet was composed by the German Baroque composer Christian Petzold (1677-1733).

The minuetto is a three-time composition, graceful in style and moderate in pace. A metronome speed of around 112 crotchet beats per minute is ideal, although the tempo could also be convincing a shade slower or quicker.

Courtly Dance A Courtly Dance This musical form and style originated in a dance in triple time and moderate tempo. 'Minuet' is adapted from the Italian word 'minuetto' meaning small, pretty and delicate. During it's most fashionable period the minuet was a slow, soft and courtly dance.

The minuet is danced by one couple alone on the floor while the rest of the company looks on. It has a fixed sequence of figures: lead-in, right-hand turn, left-hand turn, and two-hand turn closing. These are punctuated by a Z figure.

The only similarity between these two is that their dictations are close to one another. 'Minute' signifies a time period consisting of sixty seconds. Additionally, it refers to small and tiny details of things. 'Minuet', however, is a form of dancing and music especially in the 18th century.

Christian Petzold Minuet in G major, BWV Anh. 114, by Christian Petzold (previously attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach)

The Minuets in G major and G minor, BWV Anh. 114 and 115, are a pair of movements from a suite for harpsichord by Christian Petzold, which, through their appearance in the 1725 Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, used to be attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach.

Rhythm and Form Stylistically refined Minuets, apart from the social dance context, were introduced to opera at first by Jean-Baptiste Lully, who included no fewer than 92 of them in his theatrical works, and in the late 17th century, the Minuet was adopted into the suite, such as some of the suites of Johann S.