A Merry Minuet
by Dan Thieman
This simple and elegant minuet easily conjures thoughts of the holiday season. The piece is for recorder, jingle bells, and/or sleigh bells (although the bells are optional). Rather than have the jingle bells and sleigh bells sound in the full version only, we chose to include them in both the full and accompaniment recordings because without them, that holiday-season-flavor quickly disappears.
The minuet was a popular style of music in France and England more than 300 years ago. Merriam-Webster defines "minuet" as: A slow graceful dance in 3/4 time characterized by forward balancing, bowing, and toe pointing. While listening to "A Merry Minuet," one can imagine a ballroom full of pleasantly mannered, well-dressed, graceful dancers.
The recorder part is simple and uses only G, A, and B. Recorder rhythms include half notes and quarter notes. The jingle bells and sleigh bells part includes quarter notes and eighth notes. Bells need to rest in measures 13-14 and 25-32. Counting (or cues from the teacher) will be essential here in order that the bells players stop and start in the correct places.
The score, as well as the individual parts for ease in duplication, can be found online at our web site, free to subscribers.
Text is taken from Music K-8 magazine.