As in the menuets from Lully's operas, the first strain of the Menuet de Poitou might be read either as a six-bar presentation (the three-bar basic idea is boxed) or a six-bar period with undivided three-bar phrases. The former fits better with Caplin's system, in which an undivided phrase poses a serious problem (we might be reduced to calling it a "phrase-like unit"). Section B (not shown) does have two plausible continuation phrases, at 8 and 6 bars, respectively. Note also that the left hand in bar 4 (circled) differs from bar 1, something better suited to a varied basic idea than to a consequent phrase.
The examples in today's post come from the notated edition by Steve Wiberg (Due West Publications), part of the Werner Icking Music Collection available on IMSLP and used here thanks to Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0.
In D'Anglebert's arrangement of a menuet by Lully, a period is formed by an antecedent-consequent pair, both of its phrases making imperfect authentic cadences on the tonic (though with different figures in the bass). The underlying design, then, might as easily be repetition of a "4-bar theme."
Much the same happens in the next menuet, except that the two closes are half cadences. Again, subtle rewriting of the left hand part (circled) weakens a period designation.
The "4-bar theme" problem is also present in the Menuet "Dans nos bois," where the PAC comes at the end of the first phrase and a half cadence at the end of the second, the opposite of the pattern we would expect as soon as about 1720.
Finally, the first menuet in the volume offers a clear antecedent-continuation theme in eight bars. The section is 16 bars, however, and the stronger cadence arrival appears in bar 8, not bar 16.
