Gavotte for Three Violins, B164

Dvorak wrote his Gavotte in G minor in Vysoka on 19 August 1890. He was commissioned by editor Vaclav Juda Novotny who planned to print it in the first issue of the new magazine Mlady 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.