I think this is an important book for musicians and dance academics alike, since McKee proposes that to understand the musical structures of the minuet and waltz, 'it is helpful to be aware of the bodily rhythms of the dance upon which they are based and the social contexts in which they were performed'. . . . McKee's holistic approach illuminates the total experiences of all the participants. . . . highly informative on the importance of dancing at every level of society, and its varying social functions, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Dance Europe
McKee's overall orientation is laudable, since functional dance music has largely been ignored by music analysts, and stylized dance music has been treated as if it had minimal connection to the practice of dancing. . . . Despite the amount of close music analysis, McKee's writing is accessible to a wide range of readers. . . . One hopes that McKee has plans for a future book to follow the mid-century delirium of the waltz to its twentieth-century demise.
Nineteenth-Century Music Review
Think back . . . to an enlightened age of rhythmic egalitarianism, when life was lived in the lightness, suppleness, and grace of triple meter as well as duple, and the two reigning dances were in 3/4. This book is a much-needed, restorative paean to that two-century era and its emblematic dances: the minuet and the waltz.
DANCE CHRONICLE
McKee's book. . . fulfils its aim: that of presenting dance-music relations in two out of three of the most popular ballroom dances in several centuries. To my knowledge, there is no other English publication on such intersection of topics – thus it deserves a place in the libraries of music and dance departments.
Gediminas Karoblis
Dance Research