What originated as a French folk dance, notated in 4/4 or 2/2 time at moderate tempo, with a distinctive rhythmic feature, as phrases begin in the middle of the bar (on the third quarter note), creating a half-measure upbeat?
Gavotte 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries has nothing in common with the 19th-century column-dance called the "gavotte" but may be compared with the rigaudon and the bourrée. The phrases of the 18th-century French court gavotte begin in the middle of the bar, creating a half-measure (half-bar) upbeat. However the music for the earlier court gavotte, first described by Thoinot Arbeau in 1589, invariably began on the downbeat of a duple measure. Later composers also wrote gavottes that began on the downbeat rather than on the half-measure: an example is Jean-Philippe Rameau's "Gavotte Variée" in A minor for keyboard. Various folk gavottes
Half-time (music) realize that while in half time, the "feel" of notes are chopped in half, but the actual time "value" remains the same. For example, at the same tempo, 8th notes (quavers) would sound like 16ths (semiquavers). In the case of the half time shuffle, triplets sound like 16th note (semiquaver) triplets, etc. By preserving the tempo, the beat is stretched by a factor of 2. In music and dance, double-time is a type of meter and tempo or rhythmic feel by essentially "halving the tempo resolution" or metric division/level. It is also associated with specific time signatures such as .