deux temps

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deux temps (Fr.). Two beats
1. In 2/2 time.

2. valse à deux temps has the following varied meanings; (a) In normal Waltz (3/4) time with 2 dance steps to a measure, on the first and 3rd beats; (b) In 6/4 or 6/8 time, with steps on the 1st and 4th ‘beats’; (c) Having 2 values of beat, as in Gounod's Faust where 2 waltzes are combined, one of them in 3/4 time and the other in 3/2, 2 measures of the 3/4 being heard against 1 measure of the 3/2 and thus rhythmically conflicting.