anacrusis
American Heritage Dictionary:
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an·a·cru·sis
(ăn'ə-krū'sĭs) 
n.
n.
- One or more unstressed syllables at the beginning of a line of verse, before the reckoning of the normal meter begins.
- Music. See upbeat (sense 1).
[New Latin anacrūsis, from Greek anakrousis, beginning of a tune, from anakrouein, to strike up a song : ana-, ana- + krouein, to push.]
Oxford Grove Music Encyclopedia:
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Anacrusis
Upbeat; term (borrowed from literary usage) for unstressed notes at the beginning of a phrase of music.
Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms:
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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.
Obscure Words:
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anacrusis
an upbeat, specif: one or more notes preceding the first downbeat of a musical measure
Poetry Glossary:
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Anacrusis
when one or more unstressed syllables are added at the beginning of a line.
Random House Word Menu:
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categories related to 'anacrusis'
- Harmony, Melody, and Structure - anacrusis: upbeat; note or notes preceding downbeat of musical phrase
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Anacrusis
For the Progressive/Thrash Metal group, see Anacrusis (band).
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In poetry, an anacrusis (Greek: ἀνάκρουσις "pushing up") is the lead-in syllables, collectively, that precede the first full measure.
In music, an anacrusis 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 bar. Western standards for musical notation often include the recommendation that when a piece of written music begins with an anacrusis, the composer, copyist, typesetter, or printer should delete a corresponding number of beats from the written music's final bar in order to keep the number of bars in the entire piece at a whole number. The plural of anacrusis is anacruses (see Ancient Greek grammar (tables)#Suffixes of the nouns of the third declension).
Examples
- 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. . .
- At the beginning of the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine", "In the" is the anacrusis, while "town" falls on the downbeat.
See also
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American Heritage 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.
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Oxford Grove Music Encyclopedia
The Concise Grove Dictionary of Music. Copyright © 1994 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved.
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Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Copyright © Chris Baldick 2001, 2004. All rights reserved.
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Oxford Companion to Classical Literature
The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Copyright © 1993, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
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