Editing Syncopation (section)

==History==
Syncopation has been an important element of European musical composition since at least the Middle Ages. Many Italian and French compositions of the music of the 14th-century [[Music of the Trecento|Trecento]] use syncopation, as in of the following [[Madrigal (Trecento)|madrigal]] by Giovanni da Firenze. (See also [[hocket]].)
[[File:Giovanni da Firenze, Appress' un fiume.png|thumb|center|600px| Giovanni da Firenze, Appress' un fiume. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMaUOL4e14M Listen]]]
The refrain "Deo Gratias" from the 15th-century anonymous English "[[Agincourt Carol]]" is also characterised by lively syncopation:
[[File:Agincourt carol - Deo gracias 01.wav|thumb|Agincourt carol – Deo gratias]]
[[File:Agincourt carol - Deo gracias.png|thumb|center|500px|Agincourt carol – Deo gratias]]
According to the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'', "[t]he 15th-century carol repertory is one of the most substantial monuments of English medieval music... The early carols are rhythmically straightforward, in modern {{music|time|6|8}} time; later the basic rhythm is in {{music|time|3|4}}, with many cross-rhythms... as in the famous Agincourt carol 'Deo gratias Anglia'. As in other music of the period, the emphasis is not on harmony, but on melody and rhythm."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/art/carol|access-date=14 March 2019|title=Carol|publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]}}</ref>

Composers of the musical High Renaissance [[Venetian School (music)|Venetian School]], such as [[Giovanni Gabrieli]] (1557–1612), exploited syncopation for both their secular madrigals and instrumental pieces and also in their choral sacred works, such as the motet ''Domine, Dominus noster'':
[[File:Gabrieli Domine Dominus noster.wav|thumb|Gabrieli Domine Dominus noster]]
[[File:Gabrieli Domine Dominus noster.png|thumb|center|600px|Giovanni Gabrieli]]
[[Denis Arnold]] says: "the syncopations of this passage are of a kind which is almost a Gabrieli fingerprint, and they are typical of a general liveliness of rhythm common to Venetian music".<ref>{{cite book|last=Arnold|first=Denis|author-link=Denis Arnold|year=1979|title=Giovanni Gabrieli|page=93|publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> The composer [[Igor Stravinsky]], no stranger to syncopation himself, spoke of "those marvellous rhythmic inventions" that feature in Gabrieli's music.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Stravinsky|first1=Igor|author1-link=Igor Stravinsky|last2=Craft|first2=Robert|author2-link=Robert Craft|year=1959|title=Conversations with Igor Stravinsky|page=91|location=London|publisher=Faber}}</ref>

[[Johann Sebastian Bach|J. S. Bach]] and [[George Frideric Handel|George Handel]] used syncopated rhythms as an inherent part of their compositions. One of the best-known examples of syncopation in music from the Baroque era was the "Hornpipe" from [[Handel]]'s ''[[Water Music (Handel)|Water Music]]'' (1733).
[[File:Handel Hornpipe from Water Music.wav|thumb|"Hornpipe" from ''Water Music'']]
[[File:Handel Hornpipe from Water Music.svg|thumb|center|500px|"Hornpipe" from ''Water Music'']]
[[Christopher Hogwood]] (2005, p.&nbsp;37) describes the Hornpipe as “possibly the most memorable movement in the collection, combining instrumental brilliance and rhythmic vitality… Woven amongst the running quavers are the insistent off-beat syncopations that symbolise confidence for Handel.”<ref>{{cite book|last=Hogwood|first=Christopher|year=2005|title=Handel: Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref> Bach's [[Brandenburg Concertos|Brandenburg Concerto No. 4]] features striking deviations from the established rhythmic norm in its first and third movements. According to Malcolm Boyd, each [[ritornello]] section of the first movement, "is clinched with an [[Epilogue|''Epilog'']] of syncopated [[antiphony]]":{{sfn|Boyd|1993|p=53}}
[[File:Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 closing bars of first movement.wav|thumb|Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 ending bars of first movement]]
[[File:Bach Brandenburg 4 closing bars of first movement.png|thumb|center|600px| Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 ending bars of the first movement]]
Boyd also hears the [[Coda (music)|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)":{{sfn|Boyd|1993|p=85}}
[[File:Bach Brandenburg 4 coda to the 3rd movement.wav|thumb|Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 coda to the 3rd movement]]
[[File:Bach Brandenburg 4 coda to the 3rd movement.png|thumb|center|600px|Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 coda to the 3rd movement]]

[[Haydn]], [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]], [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]], and [[Franz Schubert|Schubert]] used syncopation to create variety especially in their symphonies. The beginning movement of Beethoven's [[Symphony No. 3 (Beethoven)|''Eroica'']] Symphony No. 3 exemplifies powerfully the uses of syncopation in a piece in triple time. After producing a 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:
[[File:Beethoven, Symphony No. 3, 1st movement bars 1-9.wav|thumb|Beethoven, Symphony No. 3, beginning of first movement]]
[[File:Eroica 1-9.png|thumb|center|600px|Beethoven Symphony No. 3, beginning of first movement]]

[[Richard Taruskin]] describes here how "the first violins, entering immediately after the C sharp, are made palpably to totter for two bars".<ref name="WestHist">{{cite book|last=Taruskin|first=Richard|author-link=Richard Taruskin|year=2010|title=The Oxford History of Western Music|page=658|publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref>

(2)	By placing accents on normally weak beats, as in bars 25–26 and 28–35:
[[File:Beethoven, Symphony No. 3, first movement, bars 23-37.wav|thumb|Beethoven, Symphony No. 3, first movement, bars 23–37]]
[[File:Beethoven, Symphony No. 3, ist movement, bars 23-37, first violin part.png|thumb|center|600px|Beethoven, Symphony No. 3, first movement, bars 23–37, first violin part]]
This "long sequence of syncopated sforzandi"<ref name="WestHist" /> recurs later during the development section of this movement, in a passage that [[Antony Hopkins]] describes as "a rhythmic pattern that rides roughshod over the properties of a normal three-in-a bar".<ref>{{cite book|last=Hopkins|first=Antony|author-link=Antony Hopkins|year=1981|title=The Nine Symphonies of Beethoven|page=75|location=London|publisher=Heinemann}}</ref>

(3)	By inserting silences (rests) at points where a listener might expect strong beats, in the words of [[George Grove]], "nine bars of discords given fortissimo on the weak beats of the bar":<ref>{{cite book|last=Grove|first=George|author-link=George Grove|year=1896|title=Beethoven and his Nine Symphonies|page=61|location=London|publisher=Novello}}</ref>
[[File:Beethoven, Symphony No. 3, first movement, bars 123-131.wav|thumb|Beethoven, Symphony No. 3, first movement, bars 123–131]]
[[File:Beethoven, Symphony No.3, first movement, bars 123-131, first violin part.png|thumb|center|600px|Beethoven, Symphony No.3, first movement, bars 123–131, first violin part]]