Syncopation

What it means

A syncopation is present when the accent is shifted against the order of the bar: a note begins on a weak beat and sounds across the following strong one, so that this is not newly attacked. The tension arises from the contradiction between what the metre leads one to expect and what actually happens.

In the notation

Two notations are common. Either the note is bound by a tie across the beat or the barline, or a sequence arises in which a longer value begins between shorter ones on a weak beat. A rest on the strong beat, too, can produce a syncopation. Not infrequently the beaming additionally makes the shift visible.

Musical use

A syncopation is effective only as long as the metre remains audible — if all voices are shifted at once, the sense of the bar simply shifts, and the appeal is lost. It therefore usually stands over an accompaniment that continues the grid.

Its history reaches far back: in the vocal polyphony of the Renaissance, the syncopation is at the same time the basis of the suspension, for this arises when one voice stays put while the others move on. In the Viennese Classical period it serves intensification and disturbance, in the Romantic era the obscuring of bar boundaries. In jazz and popular music it belongs to the essential stock: a large part of what is perceived there as rhythmic character rests on accents away from the beat.

Performance practice

When practising, keep counting the metre deliberately, instead of letting yourself be carried along by the syncopation — the most common inaccuracy is that the syncopated note comes too early. Give it weight but not more than the phrase can bear; it works through its position, not through volume. Practise the passage once without binding, with the beat struck, and add the tie afterward. And take care, in ensemble, that the supporting voice calmly continues the grid.