[Tango-L] Syncopation example from Keith's mp3's

Huck Kennedy huck at eninet.eas.asu.edu
Fri Jul 28 16:59:23 EDT 2006


     Okay, please don't strangle me, but for anyone still
trying to sort out syncopation, I found a good, relatively
clear example amongst Keith's wonderful new music samples.
Check out D'Arienzo:

     http://totango.net/depuracepa.mp3

First, a couple of rather minor, trivial examples.  The
excerpt starts off finishing a phrase (and I'm using
the word "phrase" very loosely, not necessarily where
a musician would say the musical phrases begin and end):

<rest>  buh-buh-BUH-buh-BUH-buh  BYUH-buh-buh-buh BUH
  2              1       2         1               2

The <rest> followed by buh-buh at the beginning of this
line is a trivial example of syncopation using a rest on
a strong beat.  I say "trivial" because even when there's
no other syncopation in a piece, the leading-in of a quick
note or two into the next measure is fairly common and
almost doesn't even count.
 
The phrase continues to wind down, with a hanging-over-the-
cliff ending:

<rest>-buh-BUH-buh-  ( <rest> buh is another minor example
  1         2          of syncopation using a rest )

Here the new phrase begins (or old one finally ends or the
extra transition between phrases starts, that sort of musical
technicality is secondary to our purposes here), with the
Quicktime bottom horizontal scroll bar maybe a half inch
into the passage (or about an inch and a half on Windows
Media Player):

-buh   BUH!!  <rest>   BUH!!   <rest>   buh-BUH-buh
  1             2                1           2

Actual first downbeat of next big phrase probably starts here:

BUH-buh-buh-buh   BUH-buh-buh-buh BUH-buh <rest> buh-BUH-buh
 1       2         1       2       1        2  

The two BUH!! 's in the first line above are big-time,
in-your-face examples of syncopation, as they are
hugely-stressed notes taken in between the normally
stressed beats of 1 and 2.  This is the clearest example
in the excerpt.

Then in the second line, there is another bit of minor
syncopation going on at the end of the second line.  If
you continue on with the rest of the excerpt, you'll
find more examples.  There's another couple of glaring
ones towards the middle.

Huck



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