page_title: Anacrusis
section_title: Music
hierarchical_section_title: Anacrusis / Music
caption_attribution_description: English: Anacrusis, in red, in Boccherini's Minuet.
context_page_description: In poetic and musical meter, and by analogy in publishing, an anacrusis is a brief introduction. Greek: ἀνάκρουσις.
  It is a set of syllables or notes, or a single syllable or note, which precedes what is considered the first foot of a poetic line in poetry and the first beat in music that is not its own phrase, section, or line and is not considered part of the line, phrase, or section which came before, if any.
context_section_description: "The word anacrusis is introduced by Westphal...The anacrusis merely consists of the unaccented note or notes which precede the first accent of any rhythmic division in a composition."
  In music, an anacrusis (also known as a pickup, or fractional pick-up) is a note or sequence of notes, a motif, which precedes the first downbeat in a bar in a musical phrase. "The span from the beginning of a group to the strongest beat in the group." Anacrusis, especially reoccurring anacrusis (anacrusis motif played before every measure or every other measure), "is a common means of weighting the first beat," and thus strengthening or articulating the meter.
  
  The musical term is inferred from the terminology of poetry, where it refers to one or more first but unstressed syllables of a lyrical verse. Anacruses may involve fine details such as rhythm and phrasing, or may involve wider features such as musical form (such as when used repeatedly).
  Very often, a melodic line will start with what is referred to as an anacrusis. An anacrusis is an unstressed pickup or lead-in note or group of notes that precedes the first accented note of a phrase (a short unit of musical line). The accented note of the phrase is found in the first complete measure of music.
  The anacrusis is a perceived grouping which is context generated in the individual phrasing of a concrete composition. The grouping of one or more antecedent tone events to a perceived phrase gestalt may be rhythmically evoked by their temporal proximity to the phrase's first downbeat (perceived phrase onset).
  An anacrusis may also be evoked solely metrically (non-rhythmically ), i. e. tonally, that is, without the downbeat perception enforced by a relative long value.
  Although the anacrusis is integrated in a musical phrase gestalt (grouped to it), it is not located in the perceived 'body' of the phrase (which is spanning from its first downbeat to its ending beat), but before the phrase (hence the German term "Auftakt"; literally: "upbeat"). In this respect -in a sequence of phrases- the anacrusis also may be perceived 'between' two phrases, neither being perceived as part of the ending of a former one, nor being located in the following one.
  When a melody begins with an anacrusis, the phrasing and inflection must be thought of in terms of the first significant tone of the melody. If we focus on the important tone we are moving toward, the anacrusis will naturally lead there with proper nuance. [emphasis added]
  This idea of directionality of beats is significant when you translate its effect on music. The crusis of a measure or a phrase is a beginning; it propels sound and energy forward, so the sound needs to lift and have forward motion to create a sense of direction. The anacrusis leads to the crusis, but doesn't have the same 'explosion' of sound; it serves as a preparation for the crusis.
  Outside of that the term of the anacrusis is most commonly used where it applies everywhere else 'within' the 'body' of the phrase between the 'head' (first downbeat) and the 'foot' (ending beat) where, by what ever musical means, a grouping is perceived from an upbeat to a downbeat (especially also to the phrases ending beat).
  Anacrusis, or upbeat, seems rather like a continuation released from its dependency on a prior beginning, unanchored, and (in some cases) seeming to come, as it were, 'from nowhere.' Anacrusis points forward: it is anticipatory, directed toward a future event.
  Since an anacrusis "is an incomplete measure that allows the composition[, section, or phrase] to start on a beat other than one," if anacrusis is present, the first bar after the anacrusis is assigned bar number 1, and Western standards for musical notation often include the recommendation that when a piece of music begins with an anacrusis, the notation should omit a corresponding number of beats from the final bar of the piece, or the final bar before a repeat sign, in order to keep the length of the entire piece at a whole number of bars. This final partial measure is the complement. However, an anacrusis may last 
caption: Anacrusis, in red, beginning Luigi Boccherini's Minuet About this soundPlay (help·info)
exif: {}