Minuet in A for piano

I'd like some feedback on this minuet & trio I composed for piano. It's my first finished piece for piano (I don't play it), so I'm not sure if it's all playable and stuff. I tried to do this thing where the first theme is in A lydian and the second theme is in E mixolydian, so as to "swap key signatures", but I feel like I never really leave A. I appreciate any feedback 🙂

All of this is playable, so don’t worry on that front. As for the key changes, I dunno whether they’re lydian, mxyolydian, or, uh, pseudomeridian 😜🤯 but to me, it just sounds like A Major and later F# Minor.

There’s some nice writing and nice harmonic touches here and there — nice. However, there’s an awful lot of open 5ths that just sound hollow and awkward. Mss. 1, 3, and 5, for example. Also, mss. 9-16, the L.H. bass chords are kind of leaping all over the place. I think it would greatly benefit you to learn about voice leading, and see how various composers choose to do so.

I think the best part of the piece here is the trio section. It has fun scales in both the left and right hand.

Thanks for sharing with us 🙂

Hmm... Not entirely shore about this. Your approach to voice leading is mostly off and the underling bass is not coherent. For this to be styled a minuet, one needs to be able to dance to it. And to be able to dance to it, one must be able to anticipate the overall movement and structure of the music (generally such dances were improvised).

I have attached a draft of a minuet I have not quite finished, though the structure is there. This should give you an idea what one should aim for when approaching this type of music.... unless your aim is to redefine the genre.

Thanks,

Good try!!

I think the minuet is pretty fair, but for the trio I think it's out of place. The only characteristic that it fits the trio is being the contrasting section of a ternary form. A trio usually has 3 voices, so you would apply counterpoint and never use a forth one, also the style doesn't fit the previous part style nor any known trio style I've heard. In fact the minuet is a good example of how a trio should be.