The minuet is a graceful French dance of moderate tempo in 3/4 metre, which became a court dance under King Louis XIV and the most popular dance of aristocratic Europe. Its movements are smooth, restrained, full of ceremonial elegance, bows, and small steps.
From the ballroom the minuet passed into “high” music: it became a frequent optional movement of the Baroque suite, and later the third movement of the Classical symphony and sonata (in Haydn and Mozart). The classical minuet has a three-part form with a trio in the middle. Later the livelier and more fiery scherzo displaced the stately minuet from the symphony. Yet the minuet remained an unsurpassed symbol of refinement and the gallant spirit of the 18th century.
