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A stately dance in 3/4 time, used as the third movement of Classical symphonies, quartets, and sonatas. Paired with a contrasting trio section.
The minuet has a specific character: elegant, measured, aristocratic. Write it in clear 8-bar phrases with balanced binary form. The trio (so-called because it was originally scored for three instruments) should contrast in key, texture, or dynamics.
Mozart's Symphony No. 40, third movement (Menuetto) — a chromatic, restless minuet that pushes against the form's usual elegance.
Minuet is one of 1760 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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