Dictionary:
an·a·cru·sis (ăn'ə-krū'sĭs)  |
[New Latin anacrūsis, from Greek anakrousis, beginning of a tune, from anakrouein, to strike up a song : ana-, ana- + krouein, to push.]
| Music Encyclopedia: Anacrusis |
Upbeat; term (borrowed from literary usage) for unstressed notes at the beginning of a phrase of music.
| Literary Dictionary: anacrusis |
anacrusis (plural ‐uses), the appearance of an additional unstressed syllable or syllables at the beginning of a verse line, before the regular metrical pattern begins.
| Classical Literature Companion: anacrūsis |
anacrūsis, ‘upbeat’ in metric, an alternative term for arsis.
| Obscure Words: anacrusis |
| Poetry Glossary: Anacrusis |
when one or more unstressed syllables are added at the beginning of a line.
| Wikipedia: Anacrusis |
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In poetry, anacrusis (Ancient Greek: ἀνάκρουσις "pushing back") is the lead-in syllables, collectively, that precede the first full measure.
In music, it is the note or sequence of notes which precedes the first downbeat in a bar. In the latter sense an anacrusis is often called a pickup, pickup note, or pickup measure, referring to the syncopation. A piece of music beginning with an anacrusis will often end before the last beat of the last bar, in order to keep the number of bars in the entire piece at a whole number.
In the song "Happy Birthday to You", the anacrusis forms the Happy and the accent is on Birthday.
In The Star Spangled Banner, the word Oh in the first line is an anacrusis in both the music and the anapestic meter of the poem:
| x | / | x | x | / | x | x | / | x | x | / | |
| Oh, | say, | can | you | see, | by | the | dawn's | ear | ly | light. . . |
In the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine", "In the" is the anacrusis, while "town" falls on the downbeat.
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Copyrights:
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Music Encyclopedia. The Concise Grove Dictionary of Music. Copyright © 1994 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Literary Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Copyright © Chris Baldick 2001, 2004. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Classical Literature Companion. The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Copyright © 1993, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Obscure Words. © 2008 by Michael A. Fischer http://home.comcast.net/~wwftd. Read more |
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| Poetry Glossary. Copyright © 2007, ILOVEPOETRY, Inc, All Rights Reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Anacrusis". Read more |
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