Xote

Xote is a slow, romantic dance rhythm of northeastern Brazil, one of the core styles of forró alongside baião and xaxado. Derived from the nineteenth-century schottische as transmitted through European salon dances, it is played by the classic pé-de-serra trio of accordion, zabumba drum and triangle, in a swaying binary meter slower and more intimate than baião, danced cheek-to-cheek in the dois pra lá, dois pra cá step. *Luiz Gonzaga* codified the xote within his forró synthesis, and it remains the vehicle for the tradition's love songs, carried by accordionists and singers from *Dominguinhos* to *Elba Ramalho*.