Work 10: The Minuets with Variations (1739)
Rudolf Rasch
The Thirty-One Works of Francesco Geminiani
Work 10: The Minuets with Variations (1739)
Although Geminiani was a composer for the violin in the first place, from time to time he wrote music for other instruments. The two Minuets with Variations for harpsichord are his first published works not for stringed instruments. They appeared (probably) in 1739, shortly after the Sonatas Op. 4 and Le prime sonate. Both variation sets are arrangements or recompositions of works first written for violin and figured bass. The first one is based on the minuet that concludes Geminiani’s Concerto Op. 2 no. I, the second one on a minuet composed by his pupil Charles Avison. After their first publication in 1739 they were included in Geminiani’s Pièces de clavecin, published a few years later, in 1743 (see Work 11).
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