Minuet

The minuet is a Danse traditional of the Baroque music, at three times and moderated movement, gracious and noble. From a formal point of view, the minuet comprises two sections with recovery each one. It was one of the preferred dances of Louis XIV and its court.

It is one of the optional dances of the continuation: it forms part of this case after the Sarabande and before the Gigue. It is generally doubled with repetition of the first minuet, without recovery after the second minuet, the topics of both being often related. The second minuet, writing with three votes, then carries the indication “trio” (which generally the resumption of the first minuet follows), named thus in the string quartets because the violoncellist abstains from taking part. In the sonatas and the symphonies, the abusive name of “trio” indicates sometimes, even if it is not written with three votes, the central episode replacing this second minuet.

It is the only dance following to be preserved it in the sonata: there will be still minuets in the Symphonie S of Haydn, of Stamitz, but it disappears then, replaced by the Scherzo.

Dance

The choreographic literature left us many writings relative to this dance of company par excellence which became the queen of the dances, so much at the city than with the scene. The minuet is attested for the first time in 1664 per Guillaume Dumanoir in his polemical treaty against the internal caliper gauges of the royal Académie of Dance. It made its appearance little of time afterwards in the opera S of Lully and its vogue developed quickly. But it is only in 1706 that Raoul-Auger Feuillet gave the first precise description of it, in its Vme Recueil of dances of ball for the year 1707 . During all the 18th century, the internal caliper gauges tried, in their writings and their lesson, to preserve its primitive purity to him and to preserve it contaminations, simplifications and “popularizations” excessive, due to the practice generalized in the living rooms. The role of these Masters was, once more, to recall the pupils, regular or occasional, the rules of the noble dance , in opposition to the Contredanse baladine .

Among the most significant works of the 18th century, the Master to dance of Pierre Rameau (Paris 1725) was without question best and the most complete on the subject.

The importance of the book of Branch should not however result in thinking that the minuet arised in a single and inalterable form. The internal caliper gauges of the court could certainly put forward their title to print with the dance a selected style and an execution more séante in company that obscure minor artists could not have done it. On the other hand, where the court and the city were ingéniaient to regulate a practice, the province often made watch of originality and invention. When Rameau writes that “shortest that one can do it is the best. But when one managed to the point it to dance well, one can of tems to other make there some approval” , the way is opened with the concision at the same time as with the improvisation. One of most popular was the “minuet of Exaudet” composed by the Violoniste Andre-Joseph Exaudet and choreography in 1765 by Claude Magny. It is extracted from the six sonatas in trio with two violins and low opus 2 published in Paris in 1751. The air was used as stamp with more than 200 songs of all styles and the dance was still applied to the beginning of the 20th century.

After a long eclipse, the original minuet was given to the honor about the years 1880 in a form inspired of the squares. In spite of the passion of the public and the imagination of the internal caliper gauges, he survived only one about fifteen years, even if its theory were still taught until the First World War.

The step of minuet

The minuet has metric ternary and is played in measurement 3/4. A not of minuet is achieved in two measurements and the four supports are distributed over six times in a variable way, for example, according to Rameau:
  • 1 2: half-section of the right foot
  • 3 4: half-section of the left foot
  • 5: not high of the right foot
  • 6: not high of the left foot

Other authors recommend the following distribution:

  • 1 2 3: half-section of the right foot
  • 4: half-section of the left foot
  • 5: not high of the right foot
  • 6: not high of the left foot

times 4 to 6 form a Pas then faggot .

Others finally suggest the rhythmic following one:
  • 1 2: half-section of the right foot
  • 3: half-section of the left foot
  • 4 5: not high of the right foot
  • 6: not high of the left foot

Figures

The minuet comprises, at the origin, the five following figures:
  • the figure of introduction
  • principal figure, called “Z”
  • to present the right hand
  • to present the left hand
  • to present the two hands.

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