Writing a baroque minuet – free course

Bach copied out Vivaldi's concertos by hand; the child Mozart imitated Johann Christian Bach; Brahms spent hours over Handel's scores. Pastiche (writing "in the manner of") is not cheating: it is the oldest composition school in the world. You choose a model, identify its fingerprints, then write a new piece that respects them. The constraints of the style do much of the work for you, and along the way you pick up skills you will keep for life.

Our first model: the minuet, a courtly dance in three, elegant and poised, which every 18th-century keyboard player wrote by the dozen.

The fingerprints of the style

3/4 time, moderate tempo (a quarter note around 100–120), a slightly weighted first beat: it is a dance step.
Two-part writing: the left hand is not an "accompaniment" but a second melody, often in longer notes. No heavy block chords.
Motor rhythm: steadily moving eighth notes, often passed from hand to hand; when one voice moves, the other holds (complementary rhythm).
Regular phrasing: 4-bar phrases paired into 8-bar periods.
Binary form with repeats: ||: A :||: B :||. Section A starts in the tonic and modulates to the dominant; section B sets off from the dominant, takes a short detour (often through the relative minor) and returns home.
Ornamented cadences: a trill on the leading tone or the note before it marks the end of a phrase.

The model: the Minuet in G from the Anna Magdalena Notebook

Long attributed to Bach, this minuet is now credited to Christian Petzold. Here are its first four bars:

M:3/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=110
K:G
%%staves {RH LH}
V:RH clef=treble
V:LH clef=bass
[V:RH] d2 G A B c | d2 G2 G2 | e2 c d e f | g2 G2 G2 |]
[V:LH] [G,B,D]4 A,2 | B,6 | C6 | B,6 |]

The whole style is in these four bars. Bar 1: a flurry of eighths that fills in the G chord (G–B–D) with passing notes (A, C). Bar 2: it settles on two repeated quarter notes, like a dance step. Bars 3–4: the same idea, one step higher, over a C chord: a sequence, the baroque composer's favourite tool. In the left hand, long notes moving stepwise (B, C, B): a real line, simple but independent. Play the whole piece in the pieces section to see how section A reaches D major.

Modulating to the dominant: the C♯ that changes everything

In G major the dominant is D. To get there, you simply introduce D's leading tone, C♯, ideally inside an A chord (the dominant of D), then close with a perfect cadence. An original example of the end of an A section:

M:3/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=110
K:G
%%staves {RH LH}
V:RH clef=treble
V:LH clef=bass
[V:RH] B2 G A B c | d2 F G A B | e2 A B ^c A | d6 |]
[V:LH] G,2 D,2 B,,2 | D,2 F,2 A,2 | A,,2 ^C,2 E,2 | D,6 |]

Bar 1: G chord. Bar 2: D chord, which the ear still hears as the dominant of G. Bar 3: the C♯ appears in both hands within the A chord: the ear realises we have "moved house". Bar 4: D in unison, the new temporary tonic. Notice how the two hands never move in exactly the same way.

Two-part counterpoint

The secret of a good minuet is the dialogue between right and left hand. Here the left hand takes the eighths while the right holds, then they swap:

M:3/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=110
K:G
%%staves {RH LH}
V:RH clef=treble
V:LH clef=bass
[V:RH] g4 f2 | e4 d2 | c B A G F A | G6 |]
[V:LH] G,, A,, B,, C, D, B,, | C, D, E, F, G, E, | D,4 C,2 | B,,2 G,,4 |]

Bars 1–2: the right hand descends slowly (G, F♯, E, D) while the left climbs in eighths: contrary motion, which creates space and independence. Bar 3: the roles reverse and the right hand runs over a D7 chord (the C in the bass is the seventh). Bar 4: perfect cadence in G. The stream of eighths never really stops: that is the baroque "engine".

A copyist's trick: write the bass first in dotted halves and quarters (one note per strong beat), then the melody, and only then the connecting eighths. Bach taught exactly this way: first think the two-voice framework, then "diminish" it (fill it in with faster notes).

Common mistakes:

Full block chords in the left hand: you instantly slide into a romantic or pop style.
Eighth notes everywhere, in both hands at once: the texture turns muddy. One voice runs, the other sings.
Parallel fifths or octaves between bass and melody (for example G/D then A/E): they weaken the independence of the voices, which baroque writing prizes above all.
Forgetting to modulate: without a C♯ in section A, the minuet goes round in circles.

The pastiche recipe, step by step

Harmonic plan (16 bars): A = bars 1–8, from G to D (perfect cadence in D at bar 8). B = bars 9–16: D, a detour through E minor (with D♯, E's leading tone) around bars 11–12, then back to a perfect cadence in G.
The motif: one bar of eighths running through the chord, followed by one bar of quarters. That's your "dance step".
The sequence: repeat the motif one step higher or lower (as Petzold does in bars 3–4).
The bass: one note per strong beat, stepwise motion, or a fourth/fifth leap at cadences (D → G, A → D).
The cadences: bars 8 and 16, with a long note (dotted half) and perhaps a trill on the note before.
Proofreading: check for parallel fifths and for the alternation of eighths between the hands.

Your workshop

Play the whole Minuet in G. Write down where the first C♯ appears and in which bar section A ends.
In the ABC editor, first write only the bass of your 16-bar minuet, following the harmonic plan above (one or two notes per bar).
Invent your two-bar motif (eighths then quarters) and place it in bars 1–2; answer it with a sequence in bars 3–4.
Complete section A up to the cadence in D (use the C♯!), then section B up to the cadence in G. Add repeat signs |: and :|.
Loop it at a slow tempo, then at 110. Fix every spot where both hands play eighths together for more than one bar.
Self-check: could someone dance to it counting "1-2-3"? Do you clearly hear "we've gone somewhere else" at bar 8 and "we're home" at bar 16? If so, your minuet works.