Gavotte(Fr.; Old Eng. gavot; It. gavotta).A French folkdance still performed in Brittany in the mid-20th century; also a French court dance and instrumental form popular from the late 16th century to the late 18th. The courtly gavotte was a lively duple-metre successor to the 16th-century branle; it often had a pastoral affect in the 18th century, and frequently appeared as a movement of a suite, usually after the sarabande.Gavotte is a generic term covering many types of folkdance from the area of Basse-Bretagne in France, but it is used also in Provence and the Basque areas. J.-M. Guilchers study of the gavotte in Brittany (1963) revealed great variety in modern practice, especially in the type of steps used, floor patterns and formations and musical accompaniment. Gavottes in some areas are accompanied by singing, with a soloist alternating either with a group or with another soloist; in other areas gavottes are accompanied by instruments such as the violin, drum, bagpipe or a kind of shawm. Various metres are used, including 4/4, 2/4, 9/8 and 5/8. Gavottes written in the 20th century are thought to derive from 19th-century practices and thus are probably not related to the court dances that gained popularity in the late 16th century.The earliest description of the gavotte as a court dance appeared in Arbeaus Orchsographie (1588). Apparently the gavotte was a set of branle doubles or variations. Arbeau described it as a relatively new form of the branle, consisting of the same sideways motion by a line or circle of dancers. Unlike the branle, in which sideways motion was achieved by the dancers continually bringing the feet together, the gavotte required crossing of the feet twice in each step pattern, and each step was followed by a hop. Various pantomimic motions, such as the choice of a leader for the next dance, usually formed part of a gavotte performance. The gavotte was mentioned as a popular court dance related to the branle by other writers as well, including Michael Praetorius (Terpsichore, 1612), F. de Lauze (Apologie de la danse, 1623), Mersenne (Harmonie universelle, 1636), and even by Pierre Rameau as late as 1725 (Le matre danser). No further information as to steps and movements was given by any of these writers: Lauze wrote that the steps and actions are so common that it will be useless to write of it; Rameau described the gavotte as a regular part of the ceremonial of formal court balls, but as he failed to describe the steps it is not certain how much the dance may have changed by his time.Ex.1 shows how the steps mentioned by Arbeau might fit with one of the gavottes included in Praetoriuss Terpsichore. Like the example, most 17th-century gavottes were in duple metre and consisted of repeated four- and eight-bar phrases, and most were uncomplicated by counterpoint, syncopation or attempts at musical relationships between successive strains. Apparently a wide variety of rhythmic figures was possible within the duple metre, one of the most common being frequent use of dotted crotchetquaver figures at the beginnings of bars. Occasionally, as in a collection of ballets performed at the Vienna court in the 1660s and 1670s (see DT, lvi, 1921/R), phrases had an odd number of bars. A ballet by J.H. Schmelzer in that collection includes five consecutive gavottes, each titled as though it represented the national gavotte of a different country (e.g. gavotte tedesca, gavotte anglica etc.); the national titles probably referred to costumes worn during the dances for which the music was written, rather than to any particular national traits in the music. Ex.2 shows two of the opening strains of these national gavottes. Other sources for the 17th-century gavotte include the Kassel Manuscript (Ecorcheville), a collection of 17th-century dances now in Uppsala (S-Uu Imhs.409), and G.M. Bononcinis op.1 (Venice, 1666).

Another type of dance called gavotte, whose relationship to the branle-gavotte is unclear, was one of the French court dances introduced during the reign of Louis XIV, probably in the 1660s or earlier. At least 17 actual choreographies are extant in the Beauchamp-Feuillet notation, all dating from after 1700 (see Little and Marsh). Most are social dances, although two (Little and Marsh, nos.4220 and 4520) are for theatrical performance. Ex.3 (Little and Marsh, no.4880) shows the opening phrase of a typical social gavotte, a couple dance (rather than a circle or line dance) popular in aristocratic circles in the early 18th century. The dance phrases, like those of the branle-gavotte, are generally four bars long as seen here, with a rhythmic point of arrival at the beginning of the fourth bar. The phrase of music that accompanies it, which begins one minim beat earlier than the dance phrase, is eight minims long, divided into two groups of four, with rhythmic point of arrival strongest on the fourth and eighth beats. In practice dance and music form counter-rhythms, and the tension is released only at the common point of arrival at the beginning of the fourth bar. A characteristic step pattern of the couple gavotte was the contretemps de gavotte followed by an assembl, which may be abbreviated as hopstepstepjump; the second half of ex.3 shows how it fitted the music (the landing on both feet in the jump occurs on the first beat of the fourth bar). Gavotte step-units were widely used in the contredanse.

Gavottes were popular in ballets and other theatrical works. Lully set 37 titled gavottes in his stage works, beginning as early as 1655 in the Ballet des plaisirs. Later French ballet composers, including Campra, Destouches and Rameau, continued this practice, Rameau in particular using it more than any other dance in his stage works (e.g. in the prologue to Hippolyte et Aricie, 1733, in Act 2 of Les Indes galantes, 1735, and in the prologue and Act 4 of Castor et Pollux, 1737). Other productions including danced gavottes were Handels Amadigi (1715) and Il pastor fido (2nd version, 1734), Grtrys Cphale et Procris (1773) and Mozarts Idomeneo (1781).Like most Baroque dances, the gavotte was used as both an instrumental and a vocal air as well as for dancing. The stylized gavotte, like the dance, had a time signature of 2 or C, a moderate tempo, phrases built in four-bar units and a performing style often characterized by quavers executed as notes ingales. Mattheson claimed that the gavotte expressed triumphant joy, but most others thought the affect to be one of moderate gaiety pleasant, tender, avoiding extremes of emotional expression. It was often considered a pastoral dance, an association emphasized in J.S. Bachs settings of gavottes in the first two English suites for keyboard, both of which have a drone bass that may be intended to imitate the sound of a musette (ex.4; note also the drone in Schmelzers Gavotta bavarica, ex.2b). The tempo varied according to the character of the piece and the amount of ornamentation. J.-J. Rousseau (1768) wrote that the gavotte, while usually a gay dance, could also be slow and tender. Unlike the more serious Baroque dances such as the allemande and courante the gavotte never lost its relative simplicity of texture and clear phrasing. Gavottes were most often written in binary form, or as a set of variations, or as a rondeau (see Rondo). Occasionally two gavottes occurred consecutively in a suite, the first then repeated da capo.

Gavottes and gavotte rhythms abound in French vocal music, not only in brunettes and other songs but also in secular and sacred ensemble music. As early as 1668 Bacilly spoke of enchanting French songs that were gavottes, including suggestions for their performance (Remarques curieuses sur lart de bien chanter, i, chap.11). Sung gavottes may be found in the works of LAffilard (Principes, 5/1705) and in cantatas by Andr Campra and Montclair.In the first half of the 18th century the gavotte was one of the most popular instrumental forms derived from a dance, frequently forming part of keyboard and instrumental suites, where it usually appeared after the more serious movements (allemande, courante, sarabande), along with other popular dances like the minuet and the bourre. Gavottes for keyboard were composed by DAnglebert, Blow, Purcell, J.C.F. Fischer, Johann Krieger, Lebgue, Gaspard Le Roux and Franois Couperin. Gavottes were also used in music written for small ensemble (e.g. solo and trio sonatas), such as G.B. Vitalis Sonate da camera op.14 (1692), Marin Marais Pices de violes (1711; gavotte La petite) and Couperins Les nations (1726). Instrumental gavottes appeared in both French and Italian styles. The Italian style, characterized by a fast tempo, contrapuntal texture and virtuoso performance techniques without the use of notes ingales, was popular in violin music. Examples abound in the works of Corelli, and include pieces entitled Gavotta which begin on the bar, not before it (op.4 no.5), and pieces entitled Tempo di gavotta (op.2 no.8). Several gavottes by Bach also illustrate this style (e.g. the orchestral suites bwv1066 and 1069, most of the gavottes for solo string instruments and the Tempo di gavotta in the sixth keyboard partita bwv830), as do the famous Harmonious Blacksmith variations by Handel (keyboard suite no.5, 1720), although they are not so titled. A gavotte aria, Sehet in Zufriedenheit, closes Bachs wedding cantata Weichet nur, betrbte Schatten, accompanied by strings and the pastoral oboe, and a choral gavotte, Love and Hymen, hand in hand, forms part of a wedding scene in Handels Hercules.The title gavotte has appeared in more recent compositions, including Johann Strausss Gavotte der Knigin from Das Spitzentuch (1880); Richard Strausss Suite for 13 wind instruments op.4 (1884); Saint-Sanss Gavotte for piano solo op.23 (1872), Orchestral Suite op.49 (1877) and Suite op.90 (1892); Prokofievs Classical Symphony op.25 (191617); and Schoenbergs Suite for piano op.25 (1925). While all these share the duple metre of the old dance, none seems to have more than a vague neo-classical association with older music, nor exhibits any of the rhythms characteristic of the Baroque gavotte.BIBLIOGRAPHYMGG1 (C. Marcel-Dubois)J. Ecorcheville: Vingt suites dorchestre du XVIIe sicle franais 16401670 (Paris, 1906/R) J.-M. Guilcher: La tradition populaire de danse en Basse-Bretagne (Paris, 1963) J.-M. Guilcher: La contredanse (Paris, 1969) W. Hilton: Dance of Court and Theater (Princeton, NJ, 1981/R) M. Little and N. Jenne: Dance and the Music of J.S. Bach (Bloomington, IN, 1991), 4761 M. Little and C. Marsh: La danse noble: an Inventory of Dances and Sources (Williamstown, MA, 1992) F. Lancelot: La belle dance: catalogue raisonn (Paris, 1996) MEREDITH ELLIS LITTLE