Few pieces are as familiar to anyone learning music as this Minuet in G Major. I played it on classical guitar at a calm tempo, so you can hear every note: it’s simple, luminous music, perfect for a break in the middle of the day. Above you’ll find the sheet music, the tab and the audio.
There’s also a good story behind this piece: a composer misattributed for almost two centuries, a 1960s pop hit and a love story that didn’t end well.
It isn’t by Bach after all
For a long time, everyone attributed this minuet to Johann Sebastian Bach. The reason lies in a small music notebook that Bach gave his wife, the singer Anna Magdalena, in 1725: the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach. It was a study book for the family, with pieces by Bach but also by other composers he liked — and many of them had no composer’s name.
It wasn’t until 1970 that researchers identified the real composer: Christian Petzold (1677–1733), an organist in Dresden and a respected composer in his day. The minuet is part of a harpsichord suite he wrote. Ironically, most of Petzold’s work has been lost, and it was precisely the mix-up with Bach’s name that saved this little piece from oblivion.
From the 18th century to 1960s radio
In 1965, the melody of this minuet became “A Lover’s Concerto”, a pop hit by the American group The Toys. A good melody travels across centuries.
A love story with a sad ending
The notebook is seen as proof of the affection between Bach and Anna Magdalena. The family home in Leipzig was always full of music, students and friends.
The ending, however, was sad. Bach died in 1750, almost blind, after two eye operations that went wrong. He was respected as an organist, but many considered his music old-fashioned, and it was only in the 19th century, with Mendelssohn, that the world rediscovered his work. Anna Magdalena had an even harsher fate: after her husband’s death she came to depend on charity and died in poverty in Leipzig, in 1760.
Practice tip
This minuet is an excellent first classical piece: the left hand is simple and the melody is instantly recognizable. A minuet is a dance in triple time, so count “1, 2, 3” and give a little more weight to the first beat of each bar. That’s what makes it sound like a dance.
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