This chapter explores the dance culture of Vienna in the latter half of the eighteenth century. It describes the changing legislation that opened up the city’s dance halls to a paying public, and the subsequent establishment of new dance venues across the city and its suburbs. It considers the social make-up of attendees at these venues, and ways in which social class was both entrenched and destabilised in this setting, particularly through practices such as masking. Descriptions of the minuet, the German dance and the contredanse – the three main dances performed at the public balls during this period – are given. The chapter ends with a detailed account of a public ball hosted by the Gesellschaft bildender Künstler at the Hofburg Redoutensaal on 25 November 1792, for which Haydn composed the music. The aim of focusing on this one event is to paint as vivid as possible a picture of the scene, such that readers can readily put themselves ‘in the shoes’ of minuet dancers in Vienna at the end of the century.

In November 1792, Beethoven arrived in Vienna to study with Haydn and ultimately to make his career. Such was the importance of dancing as a social skill that Beethoven included finding a dancing teacher on his ‘to-do’ list and upon arrival in Vienna copied out the details of a dancing teacher from the Wiener Zeitung. In the same month, Haydn returned to Vienna from his first trip to England, and his first task was to compose minuets and German dances for a ball in the city’s Redoutensaal at the end of the month. November 1792 thus sets the scene for an investigation into the dance culture of Vienna at the end of the eighteenth century, and its implications for minuet composition, with a focus on minuets by Haydn. Following a description of Beethoven’s arrival and Haydn’s return, the Introduction considers existing musicological attempts to consider the minuet, and provides a summary outline of the book that follows.