The minuet has been used extensively in popular media including movies, television and video games. There are countless modern transcriptions of the minuet, including those for the piano, saxophone, two mandolins, accordion, and choir. A 19th century transcription of the minuet for the organ can be found in the Bibliothéque Inguimbertine in Carpentras. The entire piece was arranged for a double viola quintet in the 18th century. The arrangements of this quintet, especially of the minuet, are extremely numerous. 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”. The second violin, on the other hand, has quick sixteenth note slurs which contain many string crossings.
In the beginning of the movement, the first violin plays a simple, elegant melody, while the viola and celli have eighth note pizzicato. It departs from the original key of E Major and becomes A Major. It is in 3/4 time, and is occasionally referred to as the “Celebrated Minuet”. The third movement of the quintet is notably the most famous, and is the most often performed of all the movements. This became Boccherini’s most famous work even though, when published, it received no special recognition. His second set, Opus 11, consisted of six quintets, most notably No. īoccherini’s first set of string quintets, his Opus 10, were also composed in 1771. He also occasionally joined the quartet as a performer himself, which prompted him to add an additional cello part to his music. The Font String Quartet performed many of Boccherini’s works, and for a while Boccherini wrote almost exclusively for them. In 1771, Boccherini's patron Don Luis, the brother of King Charles III of Spain, began to employ the Font String Quartet, composed of violist Francisco Font and his three sons. At the time of this composition, Boccherini had been writing string quartets for about ten years. This string quintet is a "cello quintet" in that it is scored for a string quartet (two violins, viola, cello) with a second cello as the fifth instrument.
#Luigi boccherini minuet full#
Being one of his most famous works, the quintet is famous for its minuet third movement (often referred to as "The Celebrated Minuet") which is most-often played as a standalone piece outside of the context of the full quintet. 5 (G 275), by Luigi Boccherini was written in 1771 and published in 1775.