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38-576: The gavotte (also gavot , gavote , or gavotta ) is a French dance, taking its name from a folk dance of the Gavot, the people of the Pays de Gap region of Dauphiné in the southeast of France, where the dance originated, according to one source. According to another reference, the word gavotte is a generic term for a variety of French folk dances, and most likely originated in Lower Brittany in

76-601: A capriole (leap into the air with entrechat ). The gavotte became popular in the court of Louis XIV where Jean-Baptiste Lully was the leading court composer. Gaétan Vestris did much to define the dance. Subsequently many composers of the Baroque period incorporated the dance as one of many optional additions to the standard instrumental suite of the era. The examples in suites and partitas by Johann Sebastian Bach are well known. Movements of early 18th-century musical works entitled Tempo di gavotta sometimes indicated

114-415: A gavotte , which seems then to have been regarded as a species of branle. Some aristocratic branles included pantomime elements, such the branle de Poitou, the possible ancestor of the minuet, which acts out gestures of courtship. Some of these dances were reserved for specific age groups - the branle de Bourgogne, for instance, for the youngest dancers. Branle music is generally in common time somewhat like

152-404: A "Gavotte" as its third movement (1884). Australian composer Fred Werner used a gavotte he composed for teaching students. Igor Stravinsky 's ballet Pulcinella features a "Gavotta con due variazioni", as number 18, and movement VI in the suite (1922). Sergei Prokofiev employs a gavotte instead of a minuet in his Symphony No. 1 ( Classical ) , Op. 25 (1917), and includes another one as

190-579: A "Hermit" branle based upon mime. There were several well-established branle suites of up to ten dances; the Branles de Champagne , the Branles de Camp , the Branles de Hainaut and the Branles d'Avignon . Arbeau named these suites branles coupés , which literally means "cut" or "intersected" branles but is usually translated as "mixed branles". Antonius de Arena mentions mixed branles ( branlos decopatos ) in his macaronic treatise Ad suos compagnones . By 1623 such suites had been standardized into

228-666: A feature that few other countries' dances have. Folk dances sometimes evolved long before current political boundaries, so that certain dances are shared by several countries. For example, some Serbian , Bulgarian , and Croatian dances share the same or similar dances, and sometimes even use the same name and music for those dances. International folk dance groups exist in cities and college campuses in many countries, in which dancers learn folk dances from many cultures for recreation. Balfolk events are social dance events with live music in Western and Central Europe, originating in

266-476: A line or circle to music in duple time, "with little springs in the manner of the Haut Barrois" branle and with some of the steps "divided" with figures borrowed from the galliard . The basic gavotte step, as described by Arbeau, is that of the common or double branle, a line of dancers moving alternately to the left and right with a double à gauche and double à droite , each requiring a count of four. In

304-400: A number of modern dances, such as hip hop dance, that evolve spontaneously, but the term "folk dance" is generally not applied to them, and the terms "street dance" or "vernacular dance" are used instead. The term "folk dance" is reserved for dances which are to a significant degree bound by tradition and originated in the times when the distinction existed between the dances of "common folk" and

342-481: A set of six dances: premier branle , branle gay , branle de Poictou (also called branle à mener ), branle double de Poictou , cinquiesme branle (by 1636 named branle de Montirandé ), and a concluding gavotte . A variant is found in the Tablature de mandore (Paris, 1629) by François, Sieur de Chancy. A suite of seven dances collectively titled Branles de Boccan begins with a branle du Baucane , composed by

380-517: Is a type of French dance popular from the early 16th century to the present, danced by couples in either a line or a circle . The term also refers to the music and the characteristic step of the dance. The name branle derives from the French verb branler (to shake, wave, sway, wag, wobble), referring to the side-to-side movement of a circle or chain of dancers holding hands or linking arms. Dances of this name are encountered from about 1500 and

418-417: Is cognate to French gavache (coward, dastard). The Italianized form is gavotta . The phrases of the 18th-century French court gavotte begin in the middle of the bar , creating a half-measure (half-bar) upbeat . However the music for the earlier court gavotte, first described by Thoinot Arbeau in 1589, invariably began on the downbeat of a duple measure. Later composers also wrote gavottes that began on

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456-472: Is no governing body or dancing for which there are no competitive or professional institutions. The term "folk dance" is sometimes applied to dances of historical importance in European culture and history; typically originating before the 20th century. For other cultures the terms "ethnic dance" or "traditional dance" are sometimes used, although the latter terms may encompass ceremonial dances . There are

494-498: The brail . Emmanuel Adriaenssen includes a piece called Branle Englese in his book of lute music, Pratum Musicum (1584) and Thomas Tomkins ' Worster Braules is included in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book . But of thousands of lute pieces from England only 18 were called branle, though one called "courant" is known from continental sources as a branle. The Branle de Montirandé appears to be related to

532-434: The downbeat rather than on the half-measure: an example is Jean-Philippe Rameau 's Gavotte Variée in A minor for keyboard. Various folk gavottes found in mid-20th-century Brittany are danced to music in 4 , 4 , 8 , and 8 time. In the ballroom the gavotte was often paired with a preceding triple-time minuet : both dances are stately, and the gavotte's lifted step contrasted with

570-408: The gavotte , though some variants, like that of Poitou, are in triple time. Branles were danced walking, running, gliding, or skipping depending on the speed of the music. Among the dance's courtly relations may be the basse danse and the passepied which latter, though it is in triple time, Rabelais and Thoinot Arbeau (1589) identify as a type of Breton branle. The first detailed sources for

608-737: The 19th century wrote gavottes that began, like the 16th-century gavotte, on the downbeat rather than on the half-measure upbeat. The famous Gavotte in D by Gossec is such an example, as is the Gavotte in Massenet's Manon but not the one in Ambroise Thomas's Mignon . A gavotte also occurs in the second act of The Gondoliers and the Act I finale of Ruddigore , both by Gilbert and Sullivan . Edvard Grieg 's suite From Holberg's Time , based on eighteenth-century dance forms, features

646-405: The 19th-century column-dance called the "gavotte" but may be compared with the rigaudon and the bourrée . The term gavotte for a lively dance originated in the 1690s from Old Provençal gavoto (mountaineer's dance) from gavot , a local name for an Alpine resident, said to mean literally "boor", "glutton", from gaver (to stuff, force-feed poultry) from Old Provençal gava (crop). The word

684-755: The Burgundian (see above) or Champagne, the Haut Barrois, the Montardon, the Poitou, the Maltese, the Scottish and the Trihory of Brittany; he also mentions four others without describing their steps; the branles of Camp, Hainaut, Avignon, and Lyon. Most of these dances seem to have a genuine connection to the region: the Trihory of Brittany, Arbeau says, was seldom if ever performed around Langres where his book

722-558: The Haut Barrois branle, which Arbeau says was "arranged to the tune of a branle of Montierandal" (probably Montier-en-Der, near Chaumont in the Haute Marne). This is danced in duple time, and as described by Arbeau has a similar structure to the double branle. Settings for this appear in the lute anthology Le trésor d'Orphée by Anthoine Francisque (1600) and the ensemble collection Terpsichore by Michael Praetorius (1612). In John Marston 's The Malcontent (1604), act 4, scene 2,

760-400: The character Guerrino describes the steps of a dance called Beanchaes brawl (Bianca's branle): t'is but two singles on the left, two on the right, three doubles forward, a trauerse of six round: do this twice, three singles side, galliard tricke of twentie, curranto pace; a figure of eight, three singles broken downe, come vp, meete two doubles, fall backe, and then honour. The opening is

798-512: The court of Louis XIV , it became one of many optional dances in the classical suite of dances . Many were composed by Lully , Rameau and Gluck , and the 17th-century cibell is a variety. The dance was popular in France throughout the 18th century and spread widely. In early courtly use the gavotte involved kissing, but this was replaced by the presentation of flowers. The gavotte of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries has nothing in common with

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836-415: The cultural roots of the dance. In this sense, nearly all folk dances are ethnic ones. If some dances, such as polka , cross ethnic boundaries and even cross the boundary between "folk" and "ballroom dance", ethnic differences are often considerable enough to mention. Folk dances share some or all of the following attributes: More controversially, some people define folk dancing as dancing for which there

874-574: The dance's steps are found in Arbeau's famous text-book Orchesography . Antonius de Arena briefly describes the steps for the double and single branle, and John Marston's The Malcontent (1604) sketches the choreography of one type. According to Arbeau, every ball began with the same four branles: the double, the single, the gay and the Burgundian branle. The double branle had a simple form involving two phrases of two bars each. Arbeau gives choreographies for eight branles associated with specific regions;

912-563: The dances of the modern ballroom dances originated from folk ones. Varieties of European folk dances include: Sword dances include long sword dances and rapper dancing . Some choreographed dances such as contra dance , Scottish highland dance , Scottish country dance , and modern western square dance , are called folk dances, though this is not true in the strictest sense. Country dance overlaps with contemporary folk dance and ballroom dance. Most country dances and ballroom dances originated from folk dances, with gradual refinement over

950-460: The dancing master and violinist Jacques Cordier , known as "Bocan", followed by a second, untitled branle then the branle gay , branle de Poictu , branle double de Poictu , branle de Montirandé and la gavotte . In the late 16th century in England the branle was mentioned by Shakespeare ( Love's Labour's Lost , 3. 1. 7: "Will you win your love with a French brawl?"). In the 17th century it

988-430: The double branle these composite steps consist of; a pied largi (firm outward step), a pied approche (the other foot drawn near to the first), another pied largi and a pied joint (the other foot drawn against the first). In the gavotte's double à gauche a skip ( petit saut ) is inserted after each of the four components; the second pied largi is replaced by a marque pied croisé (the following foot crosses over

1026-444: The first to create a grand ternary form ; A–(A)–B–A. There is a Gavotte en Rondeau ("Gavotte in rondo form") in J.S. Bach 's Partita No. 3 in E Major for solo violin, BWV 1006. The gavotte could be played at a variety of tempos : Johann Gottfried Walther wrote that the gavotte is "often quick but occasionally slow". The gavotte is first described in the late 16th century as a suite or miscellany of double branles danced in

1064-831: The folk revival of the 1970s and becoming more popular since about 2000, where popular European partner dances from the end of the 19th century such as the schottische , polka , mazurka and waltz are danced, with additionally other European folk dances, mainly from France , but also from Sweden , Spain and other countries. various dances such as tamang selo and many others Branle A branle ( / ˈ b r æ n əl , ˈ b r ɑː l / BRAN -əl, BRAHL , French: [bʁɑ̃l] ), also bransle , brangle , brawl ( e ), brall ( e ), braul ( e ), brando (in Italy), bran (in Spain), or brantle (in Scotland),

1102-421: The left with toe contacting the floor); the final pied approche is replaced by a grève croisée (the right foot crosses over the left, raised). The double à droite begins with a pieds joints and petit saut , followed by two quick steps, a marque pied gauche croisé and marque pied droit croisé , during beat two, a grève droit croisée and petit saut on beat three and on the last beat pieds joints and

1140-454: The left. Although originally French dances of rustic provenance, danced to the dancers' singing, the branle was adopted, like other folk-dances, into aristocratic use by the time that printed books allow us to reconstruct the dances. A variety of branles, attributed to different regions, were danced in sequence, so that the suite of branle music gives one of the earliest examples of the classical suite of dances . Such suites generally ended with

1178-399: The second of his Ten Piano Pieces Op. 12 (1913), and another as the third of his Four Piano Pieces, Op. 32 (1918). Leonard Bernstein 's Candide has a "Venice Gavotte" in act 2. "The Ascot Gavotte" is a song in the 1956 musical My Fair Lady by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe . Folk dance The terms "ethnic" and "traditional" are used when it is required to emphasize

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1216-517: The sense of a gavotte rhythm or movement, without fitting the number of measures or strains typical of the actual dance. Examples of these can be found in the works of Arcangelo Corelli or Johann Sebastian Bach . George Frideric Handel wrote a number of gavottes, including the fifth-and-final movement, Allegro, of the Concerto Grosso in B-flat major, Op. 3 , No. 2, HWV 313. Composers in

1254-534: The shuffling minuet step . It had a steady rhythm , not broken up into faster notes. In the Baroque suite the gavotte is played after (or sometimes before) the sarabande . Like most dance movements of the Baroque period it is typically in binary form but this may be extended by a second melody in the same metre , often one called the musette , having a pedal drone to imitate the French bagpipes , played after

1292-425: The term is used for dances still danced in France today. Before 1500, the only dance-related use of this word is the "swaying" step of the basse danse . The branle was danced by a chain of dancers, usually in couples, with linked arms or holding hands. The dance alternated a number of larger sideways steps to the left (often four) with the same number of smaller steps to the right so that the chain moved gradually to

1330-474: The west, or possibly Provence in the southeast or the French Basque Country in the southwest of France. It is notated in 4 or 2 time and is usually of moderate tempo , though the folk dances also use meters such as 8 and 8 . In late 16th-century Renaissance dance , the gavotte is first mentioned as the last of a suite of branles . Popular at

1368-463: The years. People familiar with folk dancing can often determine what country a dance is from even if they have not seen that particular dance before. Some countries' dances have features that are unique to that country, although neighboring countries sometimes have similar features. For example, the German and Austrian schuhplattling dance consists of slapping the body and shoes in a fixed pattern,

1406-566: Was danced at the courts of Louis XIV of France and Charles II of England , where it became "even more common than in France". There are even a few late examples in Beauchamp–Feuillet notation (invented in 1691), such as Danses nouvelles presentees au Roy (c. 1715) by Louis-Guillaume Pécour . In Italy the branle became the brando , and in Spain the bran . The Branle seems to have travelled to Scotland and survived for some time as

1444-412: Was published, but "I learned it long ago from a young Breton who was a fellow student of mine at Poitiers". On the other hand, Arbeau identifies some branles as adapted to ballet and mime. When his student Capriol asks whether the Maltese branle is native to Malta, rather than just "a fanciful invention for a ballet", Arbeau replies that he "cannot believe it to be other than a ballet". He also describes

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