# What is the tempo of minuet?

I am learning to play Leopold Mozart's Minuet in D-minor. Examples of the music can be found here:
- https://soundcloud.com/hudson-shires/minuet-in-d-minor-by-leopold
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=na4f9ltv2Fk

Regardless of the recordings, the question I have is _how fast should one play a minuet?_

Clearly, this is a baroque dance music. So the answer to the question will be the same as the answer to "how fast is minuet dance?"

It turns out, it's quite fast: **about 112 metronome beats per minute**.

Sources:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPYCuzcJioU - an excerpt of a BBC documentary where a historic dances historian counts to demonstrate the dance steps. It's rather fast. Matching that speed to the metronome of my piano turns out at arounf 110 bpm.
- http://www.janvanbiezen.nl/frenchbarok.html Jan van Biezen's analysis of historical literature shows that minuet tempo is about 106-112 bpm. The article is generally a solid source for tempos for French baroque dances. Useful for future reference.