syncopation

syncopation
/sing'keuh pay"sheuhn, sin'-/, n.
1. Music. a shifting of the normal accent, usually by stressing the normally unaccented beats.
2. something, as a rhythm or a passage of music, that is syncopated.
3. Also called counterpoint, counterpoint rhythm. Pros. the use of rhetorical stress at variance with the metrical stress of a line of verse, as the stress on and and of in Come praise Colonus' horses and come praise/The wine-dark of the wood's intricacies.
4. Gram. syncope.
[1525-35; < ML syncopation- (s. of syncopatio), equiv. to LL syncopat(us) (see SYNCOPATE) + -ion- -ION]

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music
      in music, the displacement of regular accents (accent) associated with given metrical patterns, resulting in a disruption of the listener's expectations and the arousal of a desire for the reestablishment of metric normality; hence the characteristic “forward drive” of highly syncopated music. Syncopation may be effected by accenting normally weak beats in a measure, by resting on a normal accented beat, or by tying over a note to the next measure.

      The pattern is typical of much folk-dance music, especially in eastern Europe, and its use in the Western written tradition may be traced to the 14th century. It is a characteristic element of jazz and figures prominently in the music of Igor Stravinsky (Stravinsky, Igor) and other 20th-century composers.

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Universalium. 2010.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Syncopation — Syn co*pa tion, n. 1. (Gram.) The act of syncopating; the contraction of a word by taking one or more letters or syllables from the middle; syncope. [1913 Webster] 2. (Mus.) The act of syncopating; a peculiar figure of rhythm, or rhythmical… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • syncopation — 1530s, contraction of a word by omission of middle sounds, from M.L. syncopationem (nom. syncopatio) a shortening or contraction, from syncopare to shorten, also to faint away, to swoon, from L.L. syncope (see SYNCOPE (Cf. syncope)). Musical… …   Etymology dictionary

  • syncopation — [siŋ΄kə pā′shən, sin΄kə pā′shən] n. 1. a syncopating or being syncopated 2. syncopated music, a syncopated rhythm, etc. 3. Gram. SYNCOPE …   English World dictionary

  • Syncopation — In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak beats in a meter (pulse). These include a stress on a normally unstressed… …   Wikipedia

  • syncopation — [[t]sɪ̱ŋkəpe͟ɪʃ(ə)n[/t]] syncopations N VAR Syncopation is the quality that music has when the weak beats in a bar are stressed instead of the strong ones. There was some nice syncopation and it had a good swing to it... It was jazz music he… …   English dictionary

  • syncopation — UK [ˌsɪŋkəˈpeɪʃ(ə)n] / US noun [countable/uncountable] Word forms syncopation : singular syncopation plural syncopations music a type of musical rhythm in which the weak beats are emphasized instead of the strong beats …   English dictionary

  • syncopation — syncopate ► VERB (usu. as adj. syncopated) ▪ (of music or a rhythm) having the beats or accents displaced so that strong beats become weak and vice versa. DERIVATIVES syncopation noun. ORIGIN from SYNCOPE(Cf. ↑syncope) …   English terms dictionary

  • Syncopation (disambiguation) — Syncopation may have the following meanings. *Syncopation, in music, the stressing of a normally unstressed beat in a bar or the failure to sound a tone on an accented beat. *Syncopation (dance), a specific usage of the term in dance. *… …   Wikipedia

  • Syncopation (dance) — The terms syncopation and syncopated step in dancing are used in two senses: #The first one matches the musical one: stepping on (or otherwise emphasizing) an unstressed beat. For example, ballroom Cha cha is a syncopated dance in this sense,… …   Wikipedia

  • syncopation — noun Date: 1597 1. a temporary displacement of the regular metrical accent in music caused typically by stressing the weak beat 2. a syncopated rhythm, passage, or dance step • syncopative adjective …   New Collegiate Dictionary

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