![]() ![]() What should be the interpretation of these vocal minuets? This is a matter virtually ignored by eighteenth-century writers on music, undoubtedly because singers had the advantage and freedom of being guided by the specific emotions and moods conveyed by the text. Its tempo runs through the entire gamut of speeds, from extreme slowness to the greatest rapidity." 6 To complicate matters, there are numerous instances of texted minuets such as are found in Baroque and Classical opera arias. Dorian aptly states that "the features of the minuet were assimilated to an astonishing degree by new formal conditions in changing centuries. In another context, when the minuet became a highly stylized affair inserted between nondance movements in a cyclical form, it was obviously not meant for dancing and could be played faster. ![]() Whenever the minuet retained the more fundamental characteristics of the actual dance, it was probably performed in a moderate tempo. We know that it was the function and position of a dance which dictated its tempo and interpretation. One minor Italian theorist and composer, Giorgio Antoniotto, writing in London in 1760 suggested "that perhaps in the mind of the public the affective qualities of tempi may have had an unconscious connection with the dance: the movements of the jig, boree and correntes, for instance, showing a connection with the brisk and lively tempi, the sicilianes and sarabands with the adagio or affettuoso, and the minuettos for the allegro gratioso." 5 It therefore seems reasonable to assume that at least under certain circumstances tempo di minuetto could have been similarly understood as evoking a certain social ambiance in addition to a specific tempo. Quantz, for example, cites a category of tempo markings (e.g., cantabile, maestoso, adagio spiritoso) which he says "refers more to the expression of passion that predominantly governs each piece than to the tempo itself." 4 Although tempo di minuetto is not included in Quantz's examples, a comparable term, alla Siciliana, is mentioned. Bound up with the tempo of a piece was its basic "affection," and such theorists as Quantz, Leopold Mozart, Tk, and Löhlein devoted portions of their treatises to the elusive quality of feeling and expression in musical performance. Vestiges of the Baroque Affektenlehre remained in the musical consciousness of composers and performers well into Mozart's time. It is important to remember, however, that for the eighteenth-century musician, many traditional Italian tempo markings had more subtle shades of meaning than are conveyed to present-day performers. ![]() 2 Dorian acknowledges that " tempo di minuetto in cyclical forms is frequently but a recollection of the earlier dance minuet." 3 Rothschild concedes that whenever the superscription is used, "the tempo and the accentuation were those of a minuet in the Style Galant, which was appreciably slower" than the more highly stylized classical minuet. Most modern writers pay scant attention to the tempo di minuetto marking, taking its meaning more-or-less at face value to denote a moderately paced tempo in three-quarter time. But the overall tempo and character are reminiscent of a Rococo minuet. It is an extended rondeau with a beguiling pseudo-Turkish intermezzo as the central couplet. The finale of Mozart's Concerto for Violin in A Major is a well-known example. Structurally, these minuet-finales are usually expanded far beyond the original bipartite matrix in order to accommodate more elaborate formal designs such as sonata-allegro or rondo forms. 1 In instrumental music of the early Classical period, it is frequently encountered as the last movement of a sonata cycle, sometimes with an additional marking such as allegretto or grazioso. Probably because its meaning is so obvious, the term tempo di minuetto is not usually found in modern musical dictionaries. ![]()
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