So I'm learning the arrangement for God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen in the Janet Davis "Christmas Songs for 5-string Banjo" and when you listen to the CD in the slower practice session there is a definite syncopation (which is how I originally practiced it) but in the full-speed version on the CD, at least to my ears, the syncopation doesn't seem to be there anymore.
The only other example I can find seems to be this youtube video (starting around 38 seconds) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq0Jvt0im20 and this also seems to not have the syncopation. With my ear I can't tell which I like better up to speed so I was wondering if anyone else had played this arrangement which way they prefered it. On one hand it seems like the syncopation provides a sort of jazzy "swing" to it, but on the other hand, as a traditional Christmas song, possibly it sounds better without that swing.
Put another way, all things being equal when do you try to add syncopation to a song (if ever) or do you prefer each eighth note to be equally spaced no matter what the song?