Gavotte for Three Violins, B164

Opus number

Burghauser catalogue number

164

Date of composition

19 August 1890

Premiere - date and place

(?) 25 November 1890, Hořice

First edition

J. R. Vilímek, 1890, Prague

Main key

G minor

Duration

approx. 3 min.

Dvořák wrote his Gavotte in G minor for Three Violins in Vysoká on 19 August 1890. He was commissioned by editor Václav Juda Novotný who planned to print it in the first issue of the new magazine Mladý houslista (Young Violinist), aimed at very young violin pupils; it was here in this magazine that the work was first published (1890). The short piece has a simple, three-part form with identical outer parts and a contrasting trio. The piece adopts the typical traits of the French Baroque dance of the same designation, namely an even number of beats to the bar, and the melodic phrase beginning in the middle of the bar.