minuet

A seventeenth-century court dance in moderate triple meter that later served as the model for the third movement of Classical instrumental works. mode (1) In the Middle Ages, a means of organizing plainchant according to orientations around the seven-note diatonic scale (corresponding to the white notes on a keyboard); (2) in the tonal system, one of the two colorings, called major and minor, that may be applied to any of twelve keys.