[Ads-l] Antedating of "Syncopated" (Popular Music)

[Shapiro, Fred]

syncopated (OED, 2.b., 1908)  1896 Chicago Daily Tribune 18 Oct. 43 (ProQuest)  The old regular and monotonous "tum-tum" of the supposed banjo has been supplanted by syncopated, or, in darky parlance, "rag" time, and the harmonies are much better than of old.

syncopated (OED, 2.c., 1927)  1914 Afro-American (Baltimore) 14 Nov. 1 (Newspapers.com)  New York Syncopated Orchestra Scores Artistic Success Before Appreciative Audience ... The compositions were all of Negro origin, and several of them were conducted by the composers themselves.

Fred Shapiro



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