Menuet, Minuet, Musette and Co.

Hey everybody...

this might seem like a strange question - and Im not even sure if I have the correct Forum for it - but Ive been looking through this huge list of compositions and keep getting mixed up...

Now I was kinda mixed up with looking up some pieces on youtube. Like I was looking for Menuett in F but could only find Minuett in F or Menuetto in F or whatever...

Now here's the question: What is the difference between a Minuett, a Menuet, a Menuetto, a Musette and all those other fancy words that all sound the same but obviously mean totally different things? And how can I be sure I have the right piece, if I dont have the name of the Composer or the tiny little numbers and letters that seem to go to all these different minuetmenuetmusuett-things? Or is this all the same word, only in different languages?

Its like I have this sheet music of a composition "Ecossaise in G major WoO 23" and at the moment all I understand is the "G major" part... What are all these letters and numbers for?

(And dont think I havent already tried out Andrews Music Term Glossary... =)

Please excuse my ignorance!!! =)

Andria

Here, this might help:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=minuet

(sorry, couldn't resist)

I kid only because I ran into the exact same problem myself. I've managed to learn a ton about these different music styles and the composers since I started playing. It's really fascinating stuff.

To answer your first question, yes, a lot of the same sounding words are the same thing just in different languages. (I'm currently working on a "Sonatina", which I think is the same as a Sonnet.) It makes googling some things more difficult, but sometimes you can get better results by changing the spelling. Sometimes google is good and gives you some recommendations.

Its like I have this sheet music of a composition "Ecossaise in G major WoO 23" and at the moment all I understand is the "G major" part... What are all these letters and numbers for?

All the letters and numbers are a way of cataloging the works so everybody refers to the same piece. Unfortunately sometimes the catalog numbers were created by two separate people, so now there are two names for the same work floating around. Very confusing stuff in some cases.

But generally, the bigger works have Opus number (O. or Op.) either named by the composer or the first "cataloger". In the case of the example you presented, WoO means "without Opus", so these little songs were cataloged with the WoO number.

So, it all depends on the composer and how their works were cataloged. Sometimes it's a real pain, but I guess that is what gives these works their character!

Hahaha!!! Geez! Never would have thought of googeling those words!!! HAHAHA!!! Giving me some cheak here, huh?

Yeah, couldnt ever be quite sure if they were talking about the same things since they were all so differently spelt. But I guess Ill just take every song as it is and go with it!

Your other explanations were quite helpful though (the woO part).
Thanks a lot!