Menuet

Menuet, also spelled minuet, is a dance and musical form that originated in the French court in the 17th century and became a staple of European courtly culture in the 18th century. The term comes from the French spelling menuet, and the dance is performed by couples in a measured, stately style in triple meter, typically 3/4 time. The steps are small and ceremonious, emphasizing poise and grace appropriate to a courtly setting.

In instrumental music, the minuet evolved from a social dance into a standard musical movement. In Baroque suites, it appeared as a separate dance often placed as a middle movement. The musical form is commonly the minuet and trio, consisting of a minuet section (A) followed by a contrasting trio (B), then a return to the minuet. The trio provides contrast in texture and key, while the outer sections remain in the same tempo and meter.

During the Classical period, the minuet and trio became the customary third movement in symphonies, string quartets, and sonatas, frequently appearing alongside other dance-inspired movements and sometimes replaced by the scherzo as musical fashion changed. Notable composers who used the minuet or menuet include Johann Sebastian Bach, who wrote minuets in various suites, and the core Classical figures Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven, who popularized its formal role as a graceful, formal movement.

Although the dance declined in regular social use by the late 18th century, the minuet remained a pervasive musical form, continuing to appear in instrumental works into the Romantic era and beyond as a conventional movement type and stylistic reference.