Learning to Listen: The Minuet

St. Paul, Minn. — This Learning to Listen tackles the 'minuet.'

Minuets appeared all over the classical era (c. 1750-1820), easily found inside the symphonies and string quartets of giants like Haydn and Mozart.

The minuet is a simple form, made even simpler by my apparent need to symbolize music with food analogies.

Picture 3 apples, different colors. A green apple, a red one and a golden apple. And keep a banana handy.

The green apple comes first, and it's repeated. Then the red apple, which also repeats. Then we hear the trio, followed by our golden apple.

It makes a bit more sense with the music, so listen to the accompanying audio to hear one of Beethoven's Minuets broken down into... well... fruit.