Crossword clues for syncopation
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Syncopation \Syn`co*pa"tion\, n.
(Gram.) The act of syncopating; the contraction of a word by taking one or more letters or syllables from the middle; syncope.
(Mus.) The act of syncopating; a peculiar figure of rhythm, or rhythmical alteration, which consists in welding into one tone the second half of one beat with the first half of the beat which follows.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1530s, "contraction of a word by omission of middle sounds," from Medieval Latin syncopationem (nominative syncopatio) "a shortening or contraction," from past participle stem of syncopare "to shorten," also "to faint away, to swoon," from Late Latin syncope (see syncope). Musical sense is attested from 1590s.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context music English) The quality of a rhythm being somehow unexpected, in that it deviates from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak beats in a meter 2 (context phonology English) The loss of sounds in the middle of a word.
WordNet
n. (phonology) the loss of sounds in the interior of a word (as in `fo'c'sle' for `forecastle') [syn: syncope]
a musical rhythm accenting a normally weak beat
music (especially dance music) that has a syncopated rhythm
Wikipedia
In music, syncopation involves a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected which make part or all of a tune or piece of music off-beat. More simply, syncopation is a general term for "a disturbance or interruption of the regular flow of rhythm": a "placement of rhythmic stresses or accents where they wouldn't normally occur." The correlation of at least two sets of time intervals. Also known as an "Uneven movement from bar to bar".
Syncopation is used in many musical styles, and is fundamental in styles such as ragtime, jazz, jump blues, funk, gospel, reggae, dub, hip hop, breakbeat, UK garage, dubstep, drum'n'bass, progressive house, progressive rock, progressive metal, djent, groove metal, nu metal, heavy metal, samba, baião, and ska. "All dance music makes use of syncopation and it's often a vital element that helps tie the whole track together". In the form of a back beat, syncopation is used in virtually all contemporary popular music.
Syncopation has been an important element of European musical composition since at least the Middle Ages. Many Italian and French compositions of the Fourteenth Century (Trecento) make use of syncopation, as in bar 9 of the following madrigal by Giovanni da Firenze. (See also hocket.) J.S. Bach and Handel used syncopated rhythms as an inherent part of their compositions. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 features striking deviations from the established rhythmic norm in its first and third movements. According to Malcom Boyd (1993, p. 53), each ritornello section of the first movement, “is clinched with an Epilog of syncopated antiphony”: (The above passage occurs at 06:59 on the linked recording.)
Boyd (1993, p. 85) also hears the coda to the third movement as “remarkable… for the way the rhythm of the initial phrase of the fugue subject is expressed… with the accent thrown on to the second of the two minims (now staccato).”:(The coda occurs at 3:58 on the linked recording.) Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert used syncopation to create variety especially in their symphonies. The opening movement of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony No. 3 exemplifies powerfully the uses of syncopation in a piece in triple time. After setting up a clear pattern of three beats to a bar at the outset, Beethoven disrupts it through syncopation in a number of ways: (1) By displacing the rhythmic emphasis to a weak part of the beat, as in the first violin part in bars 7-9:
Taruskin (2010, p. 658) describes here how “the first violins, entering immediately after the C sharp, are made palpably to totter for two bars.”
(2) By placing accents on normally weak beats, as in bars 25-26 and 28-35:
This “long sequence of syncopated sforzandi” recurs later during the development section of this movement, in a passage that Antony Hopkins (1981, p. 75) describes as “a rhythmic pattern that rides roughshod over the properties of a normal three-in-a bar.” (3) By inserting silences (rests) at points where a listener might expect strong beats, in the words of George Grove (1896, p61), “nine bars of discords given fortissimo on the weak beats of the bar.”:
Syncopation is an essential part of the character of some musical styles, such as jazz and ragtime. Hungarian Csárdás song-dances are always syncopated. The "Scotch snap" of Scotland also feature syncopation.
Syncopation can also occur when a strong harmony is placed on a weak beat, for instance when a 7th-chord is placed on the second beat of measure or a dominant is placed at the fourth beat of a measure. The latter frequently occurs in tonal cadences in 18th and early 19th century music and is the usual conclusion of any section.
A hemiola can also be seen as one straight measure in 3 with one long chord and one short chord and a syncope in the measure thereafter, with one short chord and one long chord. Usually, the last chord in a hemiola is a (bi-)dominant, and as such a strong harmony on a weak beat, hence a syncope.
Syncopation is a 1942 film from RKO directed by William Dieterle set during the early days of jazz. It is also known as The Band Played On.
The terms syncopation and syncopated step in dancing are used in two senses:
- The first definition matches the musical term: stepping on (or otherwise emphasizing) an unstressed beat. For example, ballroom Cha cha is a syncopated dance in this sense, because the basic step "breaks on two." When dancing to the disparate threads contained within the music, hands, torso, and head can independently move in relation to a thread, creating a fluidly syncopated performance of the music.
- The word "syncopation" is often used by dance teachers to mean improvised or rehearsed execution of step patterns that have more rhythmical nuances than "standard" step patterns. It takes advanced dancing skill to dance syncopations in this sense. Advanced dancing of West Coast Swing and the Lindy Hop makes heavy use of "syncopation" in this sense (although swing music and swing dances feature the "usual" syncopation, i.e., emphasising the even beats).
Many dance teachers criticize the use of the term "syncopation" and abandon it in favour of the term "double-time". This is most likely due to a convenience in similarity, and/or a misunderstanding of the rhythmic concept.
Dance syncopation often matches musical syncopation, such as when (in West Coast Swing) the leader touches slightly before beat 3 or stomps on beat 6.
Syncopation is a musical term for the stressing of a normally unstressed beat in a bar or the failure to sound a tone on an accented beat. It may also refer to:
- Syncopation (dance), a term with two meanings in dance
- Syncopation (1929 film), early American musical
- Syncopation (1942 film), American musical
- Syncopation in algebra, a way of writing algebra that is not rhetorical, but also not fully symbolic
- “Syncopation”, a song by Billy Ocean on the 1984 album Suddenly
- “Syncopation”, a song by Babymetal on the 2016 album Metal Resistance
Syncopation is a 1929 American musical film directed by Bert Glennon and starring Barbara Bennett, Bobby Watson, and Ian Hunter, although top billing went to Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians.
This was the second film produced by RKO Radio Pictures, but the first released by the studio, as the company's first produced film, Street Girl, was not released until August 1929. The film was made at the company's New York City studios and is based on the novel Stepping High by Gene Markey. The film was heavily marketed on its release, being the first film to be broadcast over the radio, as well as being RKO's first sound musical, and was a significant success.
This film was the first made in the RCA Photophone sound-on-film process, and was an important test for Radio Corporation of America, which had invested heavily in the newly created RKO.
Usage examples of "syncopation".
However, syncopation of chords is not unknown and, for example, occurs frequently in salsa music, which is a strongly syncopated genre of music.
In the time it took me to walk the hundred meters back, the syncopation clamping itself deeper into my walk, I caught sight of the scientist, the god of the scientist.
There is a sour rhythm in the fellow and he will beat a pretty syncopation on them if the hurdy-gurdy will but stick to marching time.
Nepalese Sherpas had come out from their hidey-hole and were doing a vigorous display of acrobatics, tumbling and diving in syncopation over one another to the delight of the crowd.
I must have heard it a thousand times, but suddenly it had a unique syncopation all its own.
Still, the blazing fireflowers brought ecstasy to the Point and Counterpoint, causing them to shift into their own frenzied syncopation.
From the corner of her eye, Brianna saw their mouths opening and closing in syncopation, and wanted to laugh, but instead followed her mother to the bedside.
Ahead, the road curved and bent, twisting gently through fields and past villages, as the horses clopped through the dark, the rhythm of their hooves always in awkward syncopation.
Every beat pushed a pulse of pain through his clubbed skull, and in sickening syncopation, the rag in his mouth seemed to throb like a living thing, triggering his gag reflex more than once.
Has any fellow, of the dime a dozen type, it might with some profit some dull evening quietly be hinted--has any usual sort of ornery josser, flatchested fortyish, faintly flatulent and given to ratiocination by syncopation in the elucidation of complications,of his greatest Fung Yang dynasdescendanced,only another the son of, in fact, ever looked sufficiently longly at a quite everydaylooking stamped addressed envelope?
In the darkness he was soothed by the soft syncopations of their breathing, Desie's and McGuinn's, but he didn't fall asleep.
For those few minutes of time as the wire edge modulated to a minor key and as the rhythm and syncopation caught, slipped and reengaged like a trio on a trapeze, there was only me and Adem and Mozart alive in that cruel, dead, lonely place.