Minuet

The Minuet (French menuet, Eng. Minuet, Italian minuetto ), from the French by "menu pas" ( small step ), is an old French ballroom dancing, just dancing on the farm, and was an important dance of the Baroque and classical music. He has the musical features that he is in triple meter, usually starts abtaktig and usually consists of a sequence of 4 - or 16 -bar consists parts -, 8.

History

The minuet was a popular ballroom dance from the second half of the 17th to the late 18th century. Its origin is largely unknown - evidence of instrumental records that were meant to accompany the dance have been dated to the 1660s. It probably comes from the Branle de Poitou, which has a similar three - bar phrases formation. Already found in the operas and ballets Jean- Baptiste Lully in the period 1664-1687 about 90 minuets.

In instrumental music, the minuet is, starting from France, in the last third of the 17th century numerous again - eg published in Menuettsammlungen as well as in chamber or orchestral suites or operas. The pace was initially elated. Historical data of the pendulum Baroque indicate 60-77 cycles per minute. In the second half of the 18th century slowed danced the minuet (initially 144-160 -quarter each minute later down to 100 ), while minuets in the chamber and orchestral music often retained the rapid pace of Baroque or even more increased (108 cycles per minute in Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 ).

From the minuet at the end of the 18th century three compositional directions form: first, the slower, traditional dance set, secondly, a precursor of the waltz, which emphasizes the triple time especially, and thirdly a faster rate, its main focus is based on keeping the metric parent reps. In the 19th century the minuet of the reputation of the Archaic adheres to and is rarely taken up. Chance it will later use in later periods, but remains rather marginal.

Form

The minuet is essentially a three -part song form, ie ABA, or Menuetto - Trio - Menuetto ( da capo al fine ). Mostly Menuetto and Trio in still two or three pieces, the sub- sections - except for Da capo - be repeated. These subsections are usually executed as 8 -bar periods. For the classical minuet, therefore results in the following overall shape (large composite three -part song form):

The term trio comes from the fact that in older minuets of the Baroque period usually performs a solo trio in the middle, for example, two oboes and a bassoon or two violins and a cello. Based on this tradition, there is the often solo, chamber music character that even Haydn and Mozart maintain their minuets. In addition to the instrumentation, the trio contrasted usually also in key and dynamics with the minuet.