Annotation:Dance in Paul and Virginia

Find traditional instrumental music

Back to Dance in Paul and Virginia


DANCE IN PAUL AND VIRGINIA. English, Minuet (3/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). ABA. Paul and Virginia is a literary work by the French writer Bernardin De Saint-Pierre (1737-1814), a tragic novel published in 1788 about two children growing up "in nature". It was adapted as an opera by LeSueur during the French Revolution and was widely translated. Songs from a later musical version, a burletta published in 1800 by Joseph Mazzinghi (1765-1844), an English pianist of Italian descent (and a pupil of J.C. Bach), were published in America on single song sheets and in publications such as the Gentlemen's Pocket Companion (Boston, 1802) and New York publisher Gilfert's Gentleman's Pocket Companion for the German Flute or Violin (1802).

Source for notated version: Ann Winnington's music manuscript book, from the early 19th century. Winnington was an American, probably a pianist, who resided in England.

Printed sources: Cahusac (Twenty Four Country Dances for the Year 1798), 1798; p. 2.

Recorded sources:




Back to Dance in Paul and Virginia