Modern analytic theory  partitions metric perturbations into displacements and grouping dissonances, whose respective prototypes are the Renaissance pre-­cadential suspension and the Baroque pre-­cadential hemiola. But the two categories frequently conjoin to form more complex hybrids: many pre-­cadential hemiolas are inserted inside displacements, and the Brahmsian hemiolic cycle inserts a displacement inside of a hemiola. These hybrid formations are related to the formal category of parenthesis usually traced back to Koch (1792), but they have a more historically distant origin, in a 14th-­‐century conception of syncopation: as a dialectic  not of displacement (Verschiebung) and restoration , but rather of fragmentation (Zerteilung) and reassembly. This paper suggests that this older conception of syncopation provides a framework for theorizing a variety of complex metric formations. Examples are provided from music of Beethoven, Brahms, Dvorak, and West African drum ensembles.