Back in Day 4 we learned that every meter has a set pattern of strong and weak beats. However, the rhythm of music doesn’t always follow that expected pattern. It often happens that the strong beat is felt earlier or later than expected. This creates a kind of a rhythmic jolt as the rhythm disrupts our expectation of a strong beat. The effect is known as syncopation
.
Syncopation occurs when a note that is on a weak part of its measure is made stronger than its surrounding notes. This is accomplished either by lengthening it more than the other notes, giving it rhythmic weight,
or by accenting it (making it louder).
The rhythm below is from Scott Joplin’s tune The Entertainer.
The marked notes are syncopations because they occur on a weak beat and they’re longer than any other notes around them. The effect is as if the strong beats occur earlier or later than expected.
Audio Example 15.1 & 15.2: Joplin: The Entertainer
For a syncopated rhythm to be effective, the meter and its pulse should have already been made clear, otherwise there wouldn’t be anything to disrupt. The surprise of interrupting the pulse is impossible without it being predictable first.
Notice also that the melodic phrase ends on a normal strong beat at the beginning of the fourth measure. The rhythm relaxes momentarily as it finally reaches a strong beat that coincides with the strong-weak patterns of its meter.
In this next example, Beethoven syncopates the rhythm simply by instructing the pianist to make the second beat louder than the first (in the 2nd
and 3rd
measures).
The indication sf
is short for sforzando
, which is Italian for with force
. This is an example of syncopation because the accented notes are on the second beat of their measures. In two-four meter, these beats are usually the weaker ones.
Audio Example15.3: Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 13 Allegro Vivace, measures 119 – 122
