Boccherini: Menuetto, G.275 No. 3

Introduction

The third movement of the quintet is notably the most famous, and is the most often performed of all the movements. It is in 3/4 time, and is occasionally referred to as the “Celebrated Minuet”. It departs from the original key of E Major and becomes A Major.

In the beginning of the movement, the first violin plays a simple, elegant melody, while the viola and celli have eighth note pizzicato. The second violin, on the other hand, has quick sixteenth note slurs which contain many string crossings. As Elisabeth Le Guin puts it in Boccherini’s Body: An Essay in Carnal Musicology, “The second violinist has no time for galanterie; he must concentrate on keeping the constant string crossings reasonable even through the length of the bow”.