# Identify this song and composer

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-song-and-composer/1025427>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** music\
**Created:** [December 5, 2025, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-song-and-composer/1025427 "2025-12-05T13:26:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-song-and-composer/1025427/1 "2025-12-05T13:26:06Z")

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Seems like a long shot, but I’ve seen the dope come through on this sort of thing multiple times.

There’s a very well-known piece of music you hear on tv and movies that’s instant code for “ostentatious refinement”. It’s sounds like baroque chamber music and is performed on violin. Typically about eight measures gets played. When I say well-known I mean you’ve heard it literally scores of times throughout your life in movies, tv shows and maybe commercials. Nowadays the trope is so worn that it’s often played for comic effect. For instance, picture a ‘gypsies in the palace’ scenario onscreen where an English butler wearing a tuxedo carries a silver tray containing a microwaved burrito and bottle of Mountain Dew - ‘your dinner, sir’ while this song plays.

What is the song and who was the composer?

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**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-song-and-composer/1025427/2 "2025-12-05T14:00:11Z")

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I’m thinking it might be Boccherini’s famous Minuet:

[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/biwNs6P6bug/maxresdefault.jpg "String Quintet in E Major, Op. 11, No. 5, G. 275: III. Minuetto") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biwNs6P6bug)

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**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-song-and-composer/1025427/3 "2025-12-05T14:00:57Z")

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Bingo! I knew this place would get it quick.