Syncopation

In music, syncopation is the stressing of a normally unstressed beat in a bar or the failure to sound a tone on an accented beat. For example, in 4/4 time, the first and third beats are normally stressed. If, instead, the second and fourth beats are stressed and the first and third unstressed, the rhythm is syncopated. Also, if the musician suddenly does not play anything on beat 1, that would also be syncopation.

Related Topics:
Music - Beat - Bar - Tone - Time

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The stress can also shift by less than a whole beat so it falls on an off-beat, as in the following example where the stress in the first bar is shifted by a quaver (or eighth-note):

Related Topics:
Off-beat - Quaver

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Playing a note ever-so-slightly before or after a beat is another form of syncopation because this produces an unexpected accent.

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Syncopation is used on occasion in many music styles, including classical music, but it is a fundamental constant presence in such styles as ragtime and jazz. In the form of a back beat, syncopation is used in virtually all contemporary popular music. Another type of syncopation is the missed beat, in which a rest is substituted for an expected note's beginning (van der Merwe 1989, p.321).

Related Topics:
Music - Classical music - Ragtime - Jazz - Back beat - Popular music

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Richard Middleton (1990, p.212-13) suggests adding the concept of transformation to Narmour's (1980, p.147-53) prosodic rules which create rhythmic successions in order to explain or generate syncopations. "The syncopated pattern is heard 'with reference to', 'in light of', as a remapping of, its partner."

Related Topics:
Richard Middleton - Transformation

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He gives examples of:

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• Latin equivalent of simple 4/4:
• Backbeat transformation of simple 4/4:
• Before-the-beat phrasing, combined with backbeat transformation of a simple repeated trochee, which gives the phraseology of "Satisfaction":
 
Syncopation: Syncopation in dance ►