syncopation, in music, the displacement of regular accents associated with given metrical patterns, resulting in a disruption of the listener’s expectations and the arousal of a desire for the reestablishment of metric normality; hence the characteristic “forward drive” of highly syncopated music. Syncopation may be effected by accenting normally weak beats in a measure, by resting on a normal accented beat, or by tying over a note to the next measure.
The pattern is typical of much folk-dance music, especially in eastern Europe, and its use in the Western written tradition may be traced to the 14th century. It is a characteristic element of jazz and figures prominently in the music of Igor Stravinsky and other 20th-century composers.