Gavotte in B♭ major, K. 300
av Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart’s Gavotte in B♭ major (K. 300) is a compact orchestral dance from his Paris stay of 1778, written when he was 22. Surviving as a brief, self-contained number (48 bars), it appears to belong to the same theatrical world as his ballet and pantomime music from that season, and is often linked—cautiously—to Les petits riens.
Background and Context
In 1778 Mozart was in Paris, seeking employment and writing for French tastes while navigating a difficult, unsettled period of travel and professional uncertainty. Alongside larger public projects, he also produced short, functional pieces suited to theatrical entertainment and social dancing. The Gavotte in B♭ major, K. 300 survives as such a miniature: a single movement for orchestra, preserved in autograph sources and transmitted in the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe among the “Pantomimes and Ballets.”[1]
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Several writers have suggested that the piece may relate to Mozart’s Paris ballet Les petits riens (premiered 11 June 1778), perhaps as an unused or “discarded” dance movement; the connection is plausible in chronology and genre, though it is not universally presented as proven.[2][3]
Musical Character
The scoring is modest and characteristically French-Classical in color: Winds: 2 oboes, 2 bassoons; Brass: 2 horns (in E♭); Strings: strings.[1] In keeping with the gavotte’s courtly lineage, the music projects a poised, upbeat elegance rather than dramatic conflict. Its brevity (48 bars) encourages a tight, symmetrical design: a bright B♭-major frame, clear phrase structure, and a predominantly homophonic, dance-led texture in which winds reinforce and brighten the string writing.[1]
Within so small a compass, Mozart’s theatrical instinct still tells: the rhythmic spring of the dance is paramount, and the orchestration—especially the oboes and horns—adds a gently ceremonial sheen that would have served well in a staged divertissement or between dramatic scenes.[1]
Place in the Catalog
K. 300 sits among the Paris works of 1778 that show Mozart adapting quickly to local genres and performance contexts, from public concert music to stage-derived dances. As a concise orchestral gavotte, it offers a small but telling glimpse of how fluently he could write “occasion” music—direct, stylish, and ready for the theater.[2]
[1] IMSLP work page (basic work data, 48-bar length, instrumentation details, NMA/Beinecke references).
[2] Beinecke Library (Yale), “Music in the Beinecke” highlight noting Mozart’s Gavotte in B♭, K. 300 and its possible relation to *Les petits riens* (Paris, 1778).
[3] Wikipedia: *Les petits riens* (context for the ballet and a reported scholarly proposal linking K. 300 to it).