gavotte

views updated May 21 2018

ga·votte / gəˈvät/ • n. a medium-paced French dance, popular in the 18th century. ∎  a piece of music accompanying or in the rhythm of such a dance, composed in common time beginning on the third beat of the bar.

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English

gavotte

views updated May 29 2018

gavotte. Old Fr. dance in common time beginning on 3rd beat of the bar. Originated in Pays de Gap where the inhabitants were known as ‘gavots’. Popularized at court of Louis XIV, where Lully comp. several examples. Became optional movement of baroque suite. Some examples by 20th-cent. composers, e.g. Prokofiev in his Classical Symphony and Schoenberg in his Suite for String Orch.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE

gavotte

views updated May 14 2018

gavotte XVII. — F. — Pr. gavoto, f. Gavot name in Provence for inhabitants of the Alps.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology T. F. HOAD

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