Surprise 1 - the solution

But? ... the refrain of this song, called "When I Hear a Syncopated Tune" is not syncopated! Yes, there is a syncopation in the final turn of the refrain, which is repeated three times—but the "earworm" melody of the refrain does not want to follow its lyrics. For whichever reason.

By the way, it is hard to believe that Mr. Hirsch (who certainly knew all about syncopations—we are at the end of ragtime's high time!) wanted to present an intricate contradictory riddle to his audience. With this light entertaining piece, I'd rather assume that the text was written after the melody had been composed ... or something like that. But I do not know the historical facts.

The refrain of this song can also be heard in this video posted at youtube , starting around 3:33.

Does also this song, called "Those Ragtime Melodies" subvert its title? I'm not so sure here: Nowadays, a "ragtime" must be syncopated in Scott-Joplin-ish manner—but it might well have been that many songs around 1900 were sold under this heading even though they were not syncopated. Still, also this song surprised me.

Surprise 1

Sometimes, a piece of music contains, somewhere in the middle, a surprise: Something you would not have expected. Of course, Haydn's "Surprise Symphony" is one of these pieces, with a rather overt and shocking surprise at just the right moment. Haydn's symphonies contain more such unexpected turns (I might show a few more sometime), but for the moment, I'll concentrate on other pieces with quirks or parts or motifs that surprised at least me.

Here is an example (the "solution" will follow in another posting): In 1918, Louis Hirsch composed a nice song for the Ziegfeld Follies in New York, with lyrics by Gene Buck: "When I Hear a Syncopated Tune." Here is a link to a recording of this song, with a refrain that's hard to forget ...

When I Hear a Syncopated Tune (from the Ziegfeld Follies, 1918)

... but?!?