Upbeat (music).html

Upbeat (Ger. Auftakt).

1. An unaccented beat or beats that occur before the first beat of the following measure. In other words, this is an impulse in a measured rhythm that immediately precedes, and hence anticipates, the downbeat, which is the strongest of such impulses. It can be the last beat in a bar where that bar precedes a new bar of music.¹

2. An anticipatory note or succession of notes occurring before the first barline of a piece, sometimes referred to as an ‘upbeat figure’, section or phrase. An alternative expression for "upbeat figure" is "anacrusis" (from Greek. ana: "up towards" and krousis: "to strike"; Fr. anacrouse). This term was borrowed from poetry where it refers to one or more unstressed extrametrical syllables at the beginning of a line.¹

3. The upward stroke made by a conductor to indicate the beat that leads into a new measure.

4. When referring to a song that's positive-sounding and fast.

Example

Beginning of BWV736, with anacrusis in red.

Citations

^ ^a ^b DOGANTAN, MINE (2007). "Upbeat" (in English). Grove Music Online. Retrieved on 2007-02-10.

Bibliography

J.-J. Momigny: La seule vraie théorie de la musique (Paris, 1821/R)
H. Riemann: Musikalische Dynamik und Agogik (Hamburg, 1884)
M. Lussy: L’anacrouse dans la musique moderne (Paris, 1903)
E. T. Cone: Musical Form and Musical Performance (New York, 1968)