Exact definition of "Minuet"--10 points are up for grabs!?

Question

Ok, so I've just written a song and I think it's a minuet, but I'm not sure. I asked my grandfather, who is a music professor, but he wouldn't tell me. He wanted me to find out on my own. I can't find any definitive information online that would tell me if it is a minuet or not, so I'm going to ask you.

I just need to know what classifies a song as a minuet, scherzo, etc. Thanks!

umm, she-nerd, I don't see a link...

and i think that glinzek has it so far

Thanks she-nerd!

Answer 1

It is a dance form with a 3 beat. It is formalistacally rather strict:

Minuet section: A, then A prime (sort of a development or extension of A) sometimes A modulates and A prime is in a different key, which modulates back to the original key.

Each section is repeated

The second section is known as the Trio. Formalistically it is identical to the Minuet, but is always set in a contrasting key with contrasting material. B then B prime with both sections being repeated.

Then the A and A prime sections are reprised, this time without the repeats.

Rhythmically the minuet exhibits some characteristic patterns.
Commonly long followed by short, say, half note followed by quarter, or quarter followed by 4 8th notes -- but there are tons of exceptions.

A scherzo is formalistically the same, but generally quite a bit faster.

Answer 2

The minuet originated from the 1600's in the court of King Louis the 14th of France in the . It was a dance for couples taking slow and graceful steps in 3/4 time. Minuets are generally found as movements in symphonies and sonatas.

Answer 3

is a social dance of French origin for two persons, usually in 3/4 time. The word was adapted, under the influence of the Italian minuetto, from the French menuet, meaning small, pretty, delicate, a diminutive of menu, from the Latin minutus; menuetto is a word that occurs only on musical scores. The word refers probably to the short steps, pas menus, taken in the dance. At the period when it was most fashionable it was slow, ceremonious, and graceful.

The name is also given to a musical composition written in the same time and rhythm, but when not accompanying an actual dance the pace was quicker. Stylistically refined minuets, outside of the social dance context, were introduced — to opera at first — by Jean-Baptiste Lully, and in the late 17th century the minuet was adopted into the suite, such as some of the suites of Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Friedrich Händel. As the other dances that made up a Baroque suite dropped out of use, the minuet retained its popularity. Among Italian composers, the minuet was often considerably quicker and livelier, and was sometimes written in 3/8 or 6/8 time. A minuet was often used as the final movement in an Italian overture. Initially, before its adoption in context outside of social dance, the minuet was usually in binary form, with two sections of usually eight bars each, but the second section eventually expanded, resulting in a kind of ternary form. On a larger scale, two such minuets were often combined, so that the first minuet was followed by a second one, and finally by a repetition of the first. The second (or middle) minuet usually provided some form of contrast, by means of different key and orchestration. Around Lully's time, it became a common practice to score this section for a trio (such as two oboes and a bassoon, as is common in Lully). As a result, this middle section came to be called trio, even when no trace of such an orchestration remains.

The minuet and trio eventually became the standard third movement in the four-movement classical symphony, Johann Stamitz being the first to employ it thus with regularity. A livelier form of the minuet later developed into the scherzo (which was generally also coupled with a trio). This term came into existence approximately from Beethoven onwards, but the form itself can be traced back to Haydn.

An example of the true form of the minuet is to be found in Don Giovanni. One particularly famous minuet has been written by Luigi Boccherini.

The minuet also remained in some countries as elements in folk dance, such as in Finland and parts of Sweden. The minuet is also a stately court dance of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Answer 4

The Minuet is a form of dance music written for the royalty of 17th century France. The music is suggestive of the movements of the dance, which are small, delicate, and stylised. The scherzo is somewhat like a minuet, but faster, livelier, and more earthy. For more info see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scherzo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minuet
The cult classic soap opera Dark Shadows featured a lot of original music, at least two of the pieces, Josette's Theme and Gerard's Theme, are described as minuets.
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Musical_forms

Answer 5

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&defl=en&q=define:Minuet&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title

these are different defs of it