# Menuetto ?



## petter (Apr 29, 2013)

I have always had a weakness for Mozart's Menuetts. They almost always have a surprising twist in the trio. A fine example is the second Menuett of the Haffner serenade (K.250) named "Menetto galante". The name "galante" is on the spot for the actual Menuett, but for the trio it's another matter. Here we have deep intellectual seriousness that trashes the main melody to pieces. When the main melody returns it has a almost comic effect in the very contrast. I think Mozart was pleased with this kind of movements, because it fitted his genius to spontaneous produce melodies. Schubert also had this kind of capacity that can be found in his chamber music and sonatas. Anyone else have a input in the matter?


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

My favorite is probably the Menuetto from the Symphony No. 39, if I'm remembering the number correctly. When played a little faster than one would want to dance, it has a remarkable rhythm I think of as "itchy." It's my favorite Mozart movement and is way too short.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

I have always detested those Classical menuets, both those of Mozart and Haydn. But that was when I was young, dumb and full of, er, passion.

Perhaps the time has come to give them another chance.


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## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

Haydn's menuettos are my favorites among his movements -- so many odd rhythmic and harmonic twists that they keep me smiling all the time.


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## HaydnBearstheClock (Jul 6, 2013)

GGluek said:


> Haydn's menuettos are my favorites among his movements -- so many odd rhythmic and harmonic twists that they keep me smiling all the time.


I love the unexpected pauses in the minuet of symphony 104, it just adds so much fun to the music.


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## Feathers (Feb 18, 2013)

I really like the menuet from Haydn's Symphony No. 83 "The Hen", one of my favourite symphonies by him. I like absolute music to be absolute, but still, I can't help but picture a little hen in my head when I hear it. Makes me happy . ^_^

To be honest, I sometimes overlook the menuet movements as the "lightweight" movements. I think that needs to change because I can't even imagine taking the menuets away from works with menuets.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Feathers said:


> ... To be honest, I sometimes overlook the menuet movements as the "lightweight" movements.


You've got that just right. They are the lightweight movements (yet already mentioned, some diabolically well-written by masters) and that was the point... just as there is a formulaic requirement for a hair of comic relief here and there in a dramatic tragedy.

In those symphonies where Shostakovich wanted to lampoon the soviet bureaucrats, Like the 5th, the menuet / trio movement is nearly ribald, and marked with his stamp of a kind of dripping and particularly vicious satire.


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