GAVOTTA, or GAVOTTE, is a kind of dance, the air of which has two brisk and lively strains in common time, each of which strains is twice played over. The first has usually four or eight bars; and the second contains eight, twelve, or more. The first begins with a minim, or two minims, or notes of equal value, and the hand rising; and it ends with the fall of the hand upon the dominant, or mediant of the mode, but never upon the final, unless be a rondeau. The last begins with the rise of the hand, and ends with the fall upon the final of the mode.
Tempi di Gavotta, is when only the time or movement of a gavotte is imitated, without any regard to the measures or number of bars or strains. Little airs are often used in sonatas, which have this phrase to regulate their motions.