WoO 7 – Minuets (12) for Orchestra, November 1795, first published (in score) in the GA., 1864. GA. No. 16 (Series 2/7) – B. 139 – KH. (WoO)7 – L. IV, p. 342/3 – N. p. 135 – P. 57 – T. 37.

Composition: For all the Minuets: 2 bassoons, 2 horns, Violin I and II, cellos, and double basses; additionally: for the first and eleventh: piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 trumpets, timpani; for the second: 2 clarinets; for the third: 2 flutes, 2 oboes; for the fourth: 2 flutes, 2 clarinets, 2 trumpets, timpani; for the fifth: 2 oboes; for the sixth, eighth, and tenth: 2 flutes, 2 clarinets; for the seventh: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 trumpets, timpani; for the ninth and twelfth: piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes. The original manuscript is lost.

A revised copy of the score and the orchestral parts is preserved in the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in Berlin. These were composed, along with the twelve German Dances mentioned in the following number, for the masquerade ball of the Pensionsgesellschaft bildender Künstler Wiens (Society for the Pensions of Visual Arts Artists in Vienna) on November 22, 1795, in the small hall of the Ridotto at the Hofburg. Since 1792, this society had held an annual ball in November; and Haydn, Kozeluch, Dittersdorf, and Eybler had written the music until 1794. For 1795, the task was entrusted to Beethoven for the dances in the small hall and to Süssmayer for those in the large hall.

Even before 1792, many musicians, and among the famous, Haydn and Mozart, had written music of this kind for similar occasions; of those who followed between 1795 and 1802, Nottebohm mentions Lipawsky, Fuchs, Seyfried, and others. Beethoven’s Minuets and German Dances were greatly appreciated: so much so that they were repeated two years later at the same event. However, they remain simply dance music. Most of the time, the materiality of the practice inevitably carried with it, in compositions of this kind, elements of rhythmic elementary and monotony, along with rudimentary forms of melodic and tonal conduct. It was not yet the more refined era of Schubert’s waltzes and the Strauss family.

WoO 7 – Minuets (12) for Orchestra, November 1795, first published (in score) in the GA., 1864. GA. No. 16 (Series 2/7) – B. 139 – KH. (WoO)7 – L. IV, p. 342/3 – N. p. 135 – P. 57 – T. 37.

Composition of the scores: For all the Minuets: 2 bassoons, 2 horns, Violin I and II, cellos, and double basses; additionally: for the first and eleventh: piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 trumpets, timpani; for the second: 2 clarinets; for the third: 2 flutes, 2 oboes; for the fourth: 2 flutes, 2 clarinets, 2 trumpets, timpani; for the fifth: 2 oboes; for the sixth, eighth, and tenth: 2 flutes, 2 clarinets; for the seventh: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 trumpets, timpani; for the ninth and twelfth: piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes. The original manuscript is lost.

A revised copy of the score and the orchestral parts is preserved in the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in Berlin. These were composed, along with the twelve German Dances mentioned in the following number, for the masquerade ball of the Pensionsgesellschaft bildender Künstler Wiens (Society for the Pensions of Visual Arts Artists in Vienna) on November 22, 1795, in the small hall of the Ridotto at the Hofburg. Since 1792, this society had held an annual ball in November; and Haydn, Kozeluch, Dittersdorf, and Eybler had written the music until 1794. For 1795, the task was entrusted to Beethoven for the dances in the small hall and to Süssmayer for those in the large hall.

Even before 1792, many musicians, and among the famous, Haydn and Mozart, had written music of this kind for similar occasions; of those who followed between 1795 and 1802, Nottebohm mentions Lipawsky, Fuchs, Seyfried, and others. Beethoven’s Minuets and German Dances were greatly appreciated: so much so that they were repeated two years later at the same event. However, they remain simply dance music. Most of the time, the materiality of the practice inevitably carried with it, in compositions of this kind, elements of rhythmic elementary and monotony, along with rudimentary forms of melodic and tonal conduct. It was not yet the more refined era of Schubert’s waltzes and the Strauss family.