I need to find a piece of classical music that uses syncopation.. help!?

Question

Any ideas?

I'm not too familiar with music..

Answer 1

A number of the "Slavonic Dances" by Dvorak exhibit syncopation. Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue", and "3 Preludes" are in the jazz idiom and syncopate all over the place.

The second movement of Beethoven's Sonata opus 110 is a fine example of how the "real" classical composers treated syncopation. Another really good example would be the accompaniment figure for the exposition in the 1st movement of Mozart's 38th Symphony ("Prague").

There are really tons of examples.

And for the record, syncopation is placing a strong accent on a weak beat, or a weak portion of a beat. For instance, Rock Music's chief characteristic is a strong 3rd beat (known ans a "back beat"), and is a syncopation because we normally expect the 1st beat to be the strong one. Placing accents between the beats is the type of syncopation one finds in Ragtime and Jazz, and most pop music today (to the point where it ceases to seem like a syncopation because it is used incessantly. Syncopation works best when used in moderation.)

Answer 2

Syncopation Examples

Answer 3

This is from the Rite of Spring by Stravinsky

http://youtube.com/watch?v=HqB6nz_enn4&mode=related&search=

It's hard to describe what syncopation is, but just listen to the way the music kind of doesn't proceed smoothly like a normal melody like "mary had a little lamb", but rather long and short notes are interspersed and the music has kind of an abrupt or bouncy quality to it. That's pretty much syncopation.

This might be an even better example.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=WtnjixhvOTU

It's the Mambo! from Leonard Bernstein's "Symphonic Dances from West Side Story". You can really hear the syncopation. Just think about the way that some notes are longer and some notes are shorter.

Answer 4

Try Congo del Fuego by Arturo Marquez, an excellent example of South American classical music.

It's also short (under 5 minutes) and wildly energetic.

Answer 5

any ragtime music uses syncopation bigtime.
try looking up Scott Joplin, his ragtime music is soooo cool, i luv it.
even The Entertainer (famous piano peice) uses syncopation.

If you look just about anywhere in just about any piece of music, you'll find syncopation in there somewhere!

Answer 6

"Syncopated Clock" by American composer - Leroy Anderson.

Answer 7

ii was watching a documentary of beethoven, he had some syncopation in there...

Answer 8

ya that works...or
Baltic Dance by Kirk Mosier