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consecutive measures of 2/4, 9/8, and 7/8 meters

While working the above problem, I found it difficult to understand the difference between "asynchronous" and "syncopated" meters. I understand that the first meter is a simple duple and the second is a compound triple, but could anyone offer some advice for determining the metric type for the 7/8 measure?

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    I have never encountered these terms in this context before. Where did the source question come from?
    – Aaron
    Commented Jul 9, 2023 at 23:46
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    @Aaron multiple choice questions sometimes include answer choices that could not be possible for any question. I suppose this is to make the question easier for those who have at least studied a little bit. For example, a question on mode identification might have an option for "Hypoaegean." The fact that a term appears in this context doesn't imply that it's actually used.
    – phoog
    Commented Jul 10, 2023 at 7:31

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This seems to be a multiple-choice question. Some of the choices include made-up terms. 'Mega Duple' is meaningless. 'Asynchronous' and 'Syncopated' are plausible as musical terms, but are not actually used in this context.

So I seem to have told you which choice is the right answer!

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    I've seen pieces that could reasonably be described as employing asynchronous meter. Similarly, certain meters might reasonably be described as syncopated, for example 4/4 with two groups of three eighth notes and one group of two. Whether anyone actually has described them as such, I do not know. I doubt that's what's going on here, though, so +1 from me.
    – phoog
    Commented Jul 10, 2023 at 7:36
  • @phoog Out of curiosity - what are those pieces like, that you would describe their meter as asynchronous?
    – crass_sandwich
    Commented Jul 10, 2023 at 16:05

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