Gavotte
French dance in duple metre with a half-bar upbeat.
What it means
The gavotte is a French dance in duple metre, usually in alla breve or 4/4. Its mark is the half-bar upbeat: the piece begins with two quarter notes before the first downbeat. The tempo is moderately lively, the character cheerful and graceful.
Musical use
The gavotte is said to come from the French mountain region around Gap and became a court dance in the 17th century. Jean-Baptiste Lully introduced it in opera and ballet, and in the Baroque it became a fixed part of the suite, for instance in the French and English Suites of Johann Sebastian Bach. It was also taken up later, for example in Sergei Prokofiev's Classical Symphony.
The gavotte should be distinguished from the minuet in triple metre, which is calmer and more courtly, and from the rigaudon, which is also in duple metre but livelier and has a shorter upbeat. The gigue is in triple or compound metre and is faster.
Performance practice
Play the gavotte with a light, dance-like stress on the half-bar upbeat and a perceptible two-half-note structure. Watch for clear phrase endings and let the ornaments sound graceful and restrained.