# How to compose a dance? (minuet, allemande etc.)



## An Die Freude

I can compose a waltz easy (just use the oom-pah-pah rhythm) but other dances like the minuet, I've no hope with. I've googled up their rhythm, but all the minuets, allemandes, courantes etc. never follow that rhythm.

So, my question is, how do you compose them?

Cheers,
ADF


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## Klavierspieler

Do you mean to compose a dance to dance to or a dance to play?


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## An Die Freude

Klavierspieler said:


> Do you mean to compose a dance to dance to or a dance to play?


To play, like in a suite.


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## ricardo_jvc6

Minuets are always 3/4, allemandes... I dunno yet, never studied that sort of plays and courantes too.


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## Kopachris

Listen to a lot of them and get a feel for the texture and the style. The "rhythm" that you'll find for each of those dances on Wikipedia is an underlying rhythm: accent, accent, accent, flourish, etc. and not necessarily a specific rhythmic motif. Pay special attention to anacruses.


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## An Die Freude

So I can put down any rhythm I want in 3/4 time and put accents on the wiki rhythm, and I have a minuet?


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## Kopachris

Mmmmmm.... yes, but there's more to it. Just to clarify the wiki rhythms a bit more, though: quarter notes mean to accent that beat, half notes mean to accent that beat and sustain it somehow so that the next one is not accented, and eighth and sixteenth notes mean to flourish (halve these values when in eight-note time, of course). It's not that cut-and-dry for dances that aren't meant to be danced to, though. As I said before, listen to as many different dances as you can and get a feel for the texture and style. Get a feel for common elements and figures: ascending lines, transpositions, etc.

Just an example (as in, *don't just rely on what I'm saying*), here are themes for a gavotte, an allemande, and a minuet that I whipped up while trying to figure out dances for myself:

























These are obviously very simple examples. The gavotte exhibits the typical two-beat ascending, flourishing anacrucis, followed by a long accent (the line could still move, had I composed it so that any notes for the duration of that half note were unaccented) and another, faster flourish. The allemande exhibits a short anacrucis leading into the main motif, a turned half note, which speeds up for the rest of the measure, then slows down at the end. An allemande also usually exhibits strong motivic development throughout. The minuet exhibits a slow, stately first measure followed by a long, but not hasty flourish, which comes to a stop with another slow, stately measure, followed by another flourish. Also keep in mind minuet (rounded binary) form.

I repeat what I said before: *the best thing for you is to listen to and study the dances of the greats (especially Bach).*


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## An Die Freude

So like this?


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## Kopachris

An Die Freude said:


> So like this?


Yes. I don't see why not.


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