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French court dance

The passepied (pasˈpje, "pass foot", from a characteristic dance step) is a French court dance. Originating as a kind of Breton branle, it was adapted to courtly use in the 16th century and is found frequently in 18th century French opera and ballet, particularly in pastoral scenes, and latterly also in baroque instrumental suites of dances. In English the passepied has been spelled "paspy" as well as "paspie" or "paspe", phonetic approximations of the French pronunciation.

The earliest historical mention of the passepied was by Noël du Fail in 1548, who said it was common at Breton courts. François Rabelais and Thoinot Arbeau, writing later in the 16th century, identify the dance as a type of branle characteristic of Brittany. At this time it was a fast duple time dance with three bar phrases, therefore of the branle simple type. Like many folk dances it was popular at the court of Louis XIV. The passepied was remodelled by Jean Baptiste Lully as a pastoral concert dance, first appearing in the 1680s as a faster minuet. It is accounted the fastest of the triple time dances of the time, usually with a time signature of (also occasionally or ), its phrases starting upon the last beat of the measure. Its phrasing had to divide into four measures to accommodate the four characteristic tiny steps over two measures. It used the steps of the minuet, which Lully had long before similarly adapted, to quite different effect, moving lightly and tracing elaborate patterns upon the floor. After this the passepied appeared in a great many theatrical productions, including those of Jean Philippe Rameau. It is found as late as 1774 in Christoph Willibald Gluck's Iphegenia in Aulis. Writing in 1739 Johann Mattheson described the passepied as a fast dance, with a character approaching frivolity, for which reason it lacks "the eagerness, anger, or heat expressed by the gigue". Italians often used it as a finale for instrumental sinfonie. Passepieds occasionally appear in suites such as J. S. Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 1, or dramatic music such as his Overture in the French Style for harpsichord. There are often two Passepieds in minor and major keys to be played in the order I, II, I, or else passepieds occur in contrasting pairs, the first reappearing after the second as a da capo. It also appeared as a movement in Henry Purcell's opera, Dioclesian, and hundreds of other Baroque compositions.