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Anacrusis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- See also: Upbeat (music)
- For the Progressive/Thrash Metal group please refer to Anacrusis (band).
- The online writing experiment Anacrusis does not currently have an article.
In poetry, anacrusis is the lead-in syllables, collectively, that precede the first full measure, while, similarly, in music, it is the note or notes (even a phrase) which precede the first downbeat in a group. In the latter sense an anacrusis is often called a pickup, pickup note, or pickup measure.
In the song "Happy Birthday", 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 early light. . .