Minuet I

Minuet 1.pdf

Hello everyone. 

In the next several days, I will be working on partita for keyboard. I am releasing the minuet movement for feedback first. 

Please review: counterpoint, harmony, melodic material, and form (in depth) for me. 

On 10/24/2025 at 8:51 PM, Kvothe said:

Minuet 1.pdf 20.73 kB · 4 downloads

 

 

Hello everyone. 

In the next several days, I will be working on partita for keyboard. I am releasing the minuet movement for feedback first. 

Please review: counterpoint, harmony, melodic material, and form (in depth) for me. 

 

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Ok. So you have some nice thematic material. Sometimes, like bars 3 and 7 don't make sense to me that much. Maybe explain that? Bar 2's last beat has a straight-forward transition to a minor. It just feels off. The second section was more favourable to my ears.

@TristanTheTristan Since this a barque dance, a minute , it is AB (binary).  So the A section is tonic (C major) and B section is domiant (G). m3 of the A section, is vi and leads I...this is fine.  Then in measure m7, it is V-I and we repeat the A section.  We don't transition to the minor! 

12 hours ago, Kvothe said:

@TristanTheTristan Since this a barque dance, a minute , it is AB (binary).  So the A section is tonic (C major) and B section is domiant (G). m3 of the A section, is vi and leads I...this is fine.  Then in measure m7, it is V-I and we repeat the A section.  We don't transition to the minor! 

 

Here is an updated version: 

1 hour ago, Kvothe said:

Here is an updated version: 

 

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Sounds much better!

1 minute ago, TristanTheTristan said:

Sounds much better!

 

Try fixing the dissonances and especially the 7ths as this is baroque dance.

See my attached notes; sorry, I only marked the first version, not the second.

I'd say if there's one thing to really focus on, it's making sure that your harmonies are very clear. Even if they're not yet completely functional (Baroque, sure), they do need to be very precise. I notice you use a lot of 4ths and 9ths or melodic configurations that result in fourths or ninths, and they're very hard to tell what the harmony is because the inversion is ambiguous. 

You'll see I marked a few things consistently: obviously try to fix parallel perfect consonances, but we also need to avoid parallel dissonances as well, especially in a two-voice texture. Speaking of parallel perfects, in a measure-for-measure harmony piece like this one, you need to make sure you're avoid parallel perfect consonances in first species; you can't just get away with it by adding some passing notes.