Menuet Antique was the first of Ravel's compositions to be published. Originally a piano piece composed in 1895, in 1929 he reworked it for orchestra.
Many of Ravel's early works are appended with titles that are perhaps designed to infuriate. At the age of eighteen, he wrote his Serenade Grotesque (In 1893), and a few year later, the Sites Auriculaires, as well as Minuet Antique. In addition, Ravel also called the Minuet as being 'a little retrograde,' imbuing a stiff form with an inappropriate content. The piano composition was premiered by Ricardo Vińes in 1898.