gavotte
/ɡəˈvɒt
/noun
1A medium-paced French dance, popular in the 18th century.Despite the fact that her head was beginning to pound horridly, she determinedly held her head high and slowly danced the gavotte perfectly without letting the book fall....
- Before the mid-17th century a gavotte usually followed a series of branles, a dance to which it was closely related, and was performed in a line or circle.
- A group of dancers in period costumes will recreate baroque dances including a minuet and a gavotte.
1.1A piece of music accompanying or in the rhythm of a gavotte, composed in common time beginning on the third beat of the bar.Composers who wrote instrumental gavottes include François Couperin, Rameau, Purcell, Pachelbel, and J. C. F. Fischer....
- He had recently orchestrated a gavotte with variations by Rameau, and had completed his Second Symphony, begun over five years before, but left unfinished until now.
- The Scherzo is not in triple time and indeed sounds more like the gavotte in Prokofiev's Classical Symphony, years before the fact.
Origin
French, from Provençal gavoto 'dance of the mountain people', from Gavot 'native of the Alps'.