Passepied

The passepied (fr. passing feet) is a 17th and 18th century dance that originated in Brittany. The term can also used to describe the music to which a passepied is set. The music is an example of a dance movement in Baroque music and is almost always a movement in binary form with a fast tempo and a time signature of three quavers per bar, each section beginning with an upbeat of a single quaver. Passepieds occasionally appear in suites such as Handel's Water Music (Suite no.1 in F) or J.S. Bach's Overture in the French Style for harpsichord (a suite introduced by a French overture movement) where there are two Passepieds in minor and major keys respectively, to be played alternativement in the order I, II, I.
A more modern example is the fourth and final movement of Claude Debussy's Suite bergamasque for piano, entitled Passepied. This piece has four beats to the bar, however musical phrasing strongly suggests it should be written in 2/4.

In English, passepied has also been referred to as "paspy" (a phonetic approximation of the French pronunciation). However, this spelling is rarely used in modern times.