In poetic and

musical meter In music, metre (British English, Commonwealth spelling) or meter (American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, American spelling) refers to regularly recurring patterns and accents such as bar (music), bars and Beat (music), beats ...

, and by analogy in publishing, an anacrusis (from , , literally: 'pushing up', plural ''anacruses'') is a brief introduction. In

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

, it is also known as a pickup beat, or fractional pick-up, i.e. a note or sequence of notes, a

motif Motif may refer to: General concepts * Motif (chess composition), an element of a move in the consideration of its purpose * Motif (folkloristics), a recurring element that creates recognizable patterns in folklore and folk-art traditions * Moti ...

, which precedes the first

downbeat ' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chi ...

in a

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

in a musical phrase. It is a set of syllables or notes, or a single syllable or note, which precedes what is considered the first

foot The foot ( : feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg made ...

of a

poetic line A line is a unit of language into which a poem or play is divided. The use of a line operates on principles which are distinct from and not necessarily coincident with grammatical structures, such as the sentence or single clauses in sentences. A ...

(or the first syllable of the first foot) in poetry and the first beat (or the first beat of the first

measure Measure may refer to: * Measurement, the assignment of a number to a characteristic of an object or event Law * Ballot measure, proposed legislation in the United States * Church of England Measure, legislation of the Church of England * Mea ...

) 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.

Poetry

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

, a set of extrametrical syllables at the beginning of a verse is said to stand in anacrusis ( grc, ἀνάκρουσις "pushing up"). "An extrametrical prelude to the verse," or, "extrametrical unstressed syllables preceding the initial lift." The technique is seen in

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

poetry, and in lines of

iambic pentameter Iambic pentameter () is a type of metric line used in traditional English poetry and verse drama. The term describes the rhythm, or meter, established by the words in that line; rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables called "feet". "Iambi ...

, the technique applies a variation on the typical pentameter line causing it to appear at first glance as

trochaic In English poetic metre and modern linguistics, a trochee () is a metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one. But in Latin and Ancient Greek poetic metre, a trochee is a heavy syllable followed by a light one (al ...

. Below, the anacrusis in the fourth line of

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...

's poem " The Tyger" (with punctuation modernized) is in italics: The poem is in trochaic tetrameter, in which the first syllable of each line is expected to be stressed, but the fourth line begins with the additional unstressed syllable "Could".

Music

, an anacrusis (also known as a pickup, or fractional pick-upMaiello, Anthony Joseph; Bullock, Jack; and Clark, Larry (1996). ''Conducting: A Hands-on Approach'', p.95. Alfred Music. .) is a note or sequence of notes, a

, which precedes the first

in a

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,"Yaraman, Sevin H. (2002). ''Revolving Embrace: The Waltz as Sex, Steps, and Sound'', p.25-7. Pendragon Press. . and thus strengthening or articulating the meter. The term is borrowed from the terminology of poetry. Anacruses may involve fine details such as rhythm and phrasing or may involve wider features such as

musical form In music, ''form'' refers to the structure of a musical composition or musical improvisation, performance. In his book, ''Worlds of Music'', Jeff Todd Titon suggests that a number of organizational elements may determine the formal structure of a ...

(such as when used repeatedly). Boccherini Minuet anacrusis

The anacrusis is a perceived

grouping Grouping may refer to: * Muenchian grouping * Principles of grouping * Railways Act 1921, also known as Grouping Act, a reorganisation of the British railway system * Grouping (firearms), the pattern of multiple shots from a sidearm See also ...

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 Rhythm (from Ancient Greek, Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular repetition (music), recurring motion, symmetry#Symmetry in music, symmetry") generally means a "motion, movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of o ...

evoked by their temporal proximity to the phrase's first downbeat (perceived phrase onset). 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. 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). Staggered thirds in C

Since an anacrusis "is an incomplete measure that allows the composition r section or phraseto start on a beat other than one," if an anacrusis is present, the first bar after the anacrusis is assigned bar number 1, and Western standards for

musical notation Music notation or musical notation is any system used to visually represent aurally perceived music played with instruments or sung by the human voice through the use of written, printed, or otherwise-produced symbols, including notation fo ...

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 an entire bar.

Examples

* In the song " Happy Birthday to You", ''Happy'' is the anacrusis and the accent is on the first syllable of ''Birthday''. * In "

The Star-Spangled Banner "The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem written on September 14, 1814, by 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the b ...

", the word ''O!'' in the first line is an anacrusis in the music: : * At the beginning of

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

' " Yellow Submarine", "In the" is the anacrusis, while "town" falls on the downbeat.

Other fields

academic publishing Academic publishing is the subfield of publishing which distributes academic research and scholarship. Most academic work is published in academic journal articles, books or theses. The part of academic written output that is not formally publ ...

, the term is sometimes used in an article to mark an introductory idea standing between the abstract and the

introduction Introduction, The Introduction, Intro, or The Intro may refer to: General use * Introduction (music), an opening section of a piece of music * Introduction (writing), a beginning section to a book, article or essay which states its purpose and g ...

proper.An example of this use can be seen at

References

*{{Commons category-inline, Anacrusis (music) Greek words and phrases Poetic rhythm Rhythm and meter