View source for Minuet

{{Short description|Social dance and musical form}}
{{other uses}}
{{Redirect|Minuetto|the 1973 single by [[Mia Martini]]|Minuetto (song)}}
[[File:Minuet (PSF).png|thumb|Minuet in the [[classical period (music)|Classical period]]]]

A '''minuet''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|m|ɪ|nj|u|ˈ|ɛ|t}}; also spelled '''menuet''') is a [[social dance]] of French origin for two people, usually written in [[Triple metre|{{music|time|3|4}} time]] but always played as if in {{music|time|6|8}} ([[Compound meter (music)|compound]] [[duple metre]]) to reflect the step pattern of the dance. The English word was adapted from the Italian ''minuetto'' and the French ''menuet''. 

The term also describes the musical form that accompanies the dance, which subsequently developed more fully, often with a longer [[musical form]] called the '''minuet and trio''', and was much used as a [[Movement (music)|movement]] in the early classical [[symphony]]. While often stylized in instrumental forms, composers of the period would have been familiar with the popular dance. 

== Dance ==
{{Main|Minuet step}}
The name may refer to the short steps, ''pas menus'', taken in the dance,{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} or else be derived from the ''branle à mener'' or ''amener'', popular group dances in early 17th-century France.{{sfn|Little|2001}} The minuet was traditionally said to have descended from the ''bransle de Poitou'', though there is no evidence making a clear connection between these two dances. The earliest treatise to mention the possible connection of the name to the expression ''pas menus'' is Gottfried Taubert's ''Rechtschaffener Tantzmeister'', published in Leipzig in 1717, but this source does not describe the steps as being particularly small or dainty.{{sfn|Russell|2006|loc=140–141}} At the period when it was most fashionable it was controlled, ceremonious and graceful.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

== Music ==

=== Rhythm and form ===
[[File:Minuet dance pattern.png|thumb|upright=1.3|Minuet [[rhythm]]{{sfn|Blatter|2007|loc=28}}]]
{{Listen|type=music|filename=Bernhard Romberg - Flute Quintet in G Major - Minuet.ogg|title=2. Minuet|description=From [[Bernhard Romberg]]'s Flute Quintet in G major, Op. 1/3 (1798), [[James Galway]], flute; The Young Danish String Quartet}}
The name of this dance is also given to a musical composition written in the same time and [[rhythm]], though when not accompanying an actual dance the pace was quicker.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} 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{{sfn|Little|2001}} and in the late 17th century the minuet was adopted into the [[suite (music)|suite]], such as some of the suites of [[Johann Sebastian Bach]] and [[George Frideric Handel]]. Among Italian and some French composers the minuet was often considerably quicker and livelier and was sometimes written in {{music|time|3|8}} or {{music|time|6|8}} time<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Milner |first=Fuller |date=27 February 2017 |title=BEAUTY OF MUSIC {{!}} CHECK THE TEMPO |url=https://www.americanpianists.org/apa-blog/177-beauty-of-music-check-the-tempo |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170716030710/https://www.americanpianists.org/apa-blog/177-beauty-of-music-check-the-tempo |archive-date=16 July 2017 |access-date=20 February 2023 |website=American Pianists}}</ref> Because the tempo of a minuet was not standard, the tempo direction ''tempo di minuetto'' was ambiguous unless qualified by another direction, as it sometimes was.{{sfn|Russell|2001}}

Initially, before its adoption in contexts other than social dance, the minuet was usually in [[binary form]], with two repeated sections of usually eight [[bar (music)|bars]] each. But the second section eventually expanded, resulting in a kind of [[ternary form]]. The second (or middle) minuet provided a form of contrast by means of different key (although in many works, the second minuet stayed in the same key as the first minuet), orchestration, and thematic material. On a larger scale, two such minuets might be further combined, so that the first minuet was followed by a second one and then by a repetition of the first. The whole form might in any case be repeated as long as the dance lasted.

==== Minuet and trio ====
Around the time of [[Jean-Baptiste Lully]], it became a common practice to score this middle section for a [[trio (music)|trio]] (such as two [[oboe]]s and a [[bassoon]], as is common in Lully). As a result, this middle section came to be called the minuet's ''trio'', even when no trace of such an orchestration remains.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Minuet |url=http://clickdavao.com/encyclopedia/view_content.php?contentid=Minuet&title=Dance |access-date=2023-03-15 |website=clickdavao.com}}</ref> The overall structure is called rounded binary or [[Binary form#Simple vs. rounded|minuet form]]:{{sfn|Rosen|1988|loc=29}}
:{|class="wikitable"
| A || B || A or A′
|-
| I (→ V) || V or I<small>(or other [[closely related key|closely related]])</small> || I
|}
After these developments by Lully, composers occasionally inserted a modified repetition of the first (A) section or a section that contrasted with both the A section and what was thereby rendered the third or C section, yielding the form A–A′–B–A or A–B–C–A, respectively; an example of the latter is the third movement of Mozart's Serenade No. 13 in G major, [[Köchel catalogue|K.]] 525, popularly known under the title ''[[Eine kleine Nachtmusik]]''.

A livelier form of the minuet simultaneously developed into the [[scherzo]] (which was generally also coupled with a trio). This term came into existence approximately from [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]] onwards, but the form itself can be traced back to [[Joseph Haydn|Haydn]].

The '''minuet and trio''' eventually became the standard third movement in the four-movement [[classical music era|classical]] [[symphony]], [[Johann Stamitz]] being the first to employ it thus with regularity.{{sfn|Langford|2019|loc={{Page needed|date=April 2020}}}}

An example of the true form of the minuet is to be found in ''[[Don Giovanni]]''.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

A famous example of a more recent instrumental work in minuet form is [[Ignacy Jan Paderewski]]'s [[Minuet in G (Paderewski)|Minuet in G]].

== See also ==
*[[Scherzo]], a musical form derived from the minuet

== References ==
{{reflist|15em}}

'''Sources'''
{{div col|colwidth=45em}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Blatter|2007}}|reference=Blatter, Alfred. 2007. ''Revisiting Music Theory: A Guide to the Practice''. New York: Routledge. {{ISBN|0-415-97440-2}}.}}
* {{1911|wstitle=Minuet|volume=18|page=564}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Langford|2019}}|reference=Langford, Jeffrey. 2019. ''A History of the Symphony: The Grand Genre''. New York: Routledge. {{ISBN|0-131-12522-2}}.}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Little|2001}}|reference=Little, Meredith Ellis. 2001. "Minuet". ''[[The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'', second edition, edited by [[Stanley Sadie]] and [[John Tyrrell (musicologist)|John Tyrrell]]. London: Macmillan.}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Rosen|1988}}|reference=[[Charles Rosen|Rosen, Charles]]. 1988. ''Sonata Forms'', revised edition. New York: W. W. Norton. {{ISBN|0-393-30219-9}}.}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Russell|2001}}|reference=Russell, Tilden A. 2001. "Tempo di minuetto". ''[[The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'', second edition, edited by [[Stanley Sadie]] and [[John Tyrrell (musicologist)|John Tyrrell]]. London: Macmillan.}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Russell|2006}}|reference=Russell, Tilden. 2006. "The Minuet According to Taubert". ''[[Dance Research]]: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research'' 24, no. 2 (Winter): 138–162.}}
{{div col end}}

== Further reading ==
{{div col|colwidth=45em}}
*Caplin, William Earl. 1998. ''Classical Form: A Theory of Formal Functions for the Instrumental Music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven''. New York: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-510480-3}} (cloth); {{ISBN|0-19-514399-X}} (pbk). (pp.&nbsp;220ff).
*Elson, Louis Charles. 1908. ''The Theory of Music as Applied to the Teaching and Practice of Voice and Instruments'', 21st edition. Boston: New England Conservatory of Music. (pp.&nbsp;157ff).
* [[Julia Sutton (dance historian)|Sutton, Julia]]. 1985. "The Minuet: An Elegant Phoenix". ''[[Dance Chronicle]]'', no. 8:119–152.
{{div col end}}

== External links ==
*{{Commons category-inline}}
*[https://archive.today/20130106070826/http://www.early-dance.de/en/content/6369-menuet-deux-pour-un-homme-et-une-femme Example of a Minuet Choreography]: "Menuet à deux pour un homme et une femme", Raoul Auger Feuillet: Recueil de Dances (1704)

{{Baroque dance}}
{{Finnish folk music}}
{{Danish folk music}}

{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Baroque dance]]
[[Category:Dance forms in classical music]]
[[Category:Triple time dances]]
[[Category:Minuets| ]]