Grove Music Online

Upbeat (Ger. Auftakt, Vortakt)

Mine Doğantan

https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.28812
Published in print: 20 January 2001
Published online: 2001

In a measured Rhythm, that impulse that immediately precedes, and

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

Upbeat Auftakt Vortakt : Ex.1 Upbeat (u) and downbeat (d) in common
metres

The occurrence of upbeats at more than one level in a rhythmic

scheme is illustrated in ex.2: the upbeat, in the metric sense of the
term, occurs at b, though at a local level the semiquaver at c is an

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 upbeat to the note at the downbeat of the following bar (d); at a
lower level, the semiquaver at a is an upbeat to the note at b.
Anacruses are often found embedded at several levels in musical
works. In ex.3, the first rhythmic group at the smallest level is
initiated by the two-note (B–C) anacrusis leading to the downbeat of
b.1. The first two bars, in turn, function as an anacrusis to the
downbeat of b.3.

Upbeat Auftakt Vortakt : Ex.2

In the early 19th century Momigny formulated the thesis that a well-
formed rhythmic unit always proceeds from upbeat to downbeat.
Riemann later universalized this idea as the principle of
Auftaktigkeit, that is, the notion that the prototypical beginning for
rhythmic groups of any size is anacrustic. The expressive potentials
of anacrustic rhythms in terms of performance timing and nuancing
were extensively explored by Lussy, who identified as many as 20
different kinds of anacruses, such as ‘ornamental’, ‘accelerating’,
‘suspensive’ etc.

An anacrusis is in essence an initiation on a non-accent, and as such

it is rhythmically unstable: its most fundamental characteristic is the
forward rhythmic impulse it generates towards the accent. Certain
writers have therefore extended the term still further and applied it
to whole spans of tonal instability, arguing that a whole phrase, for
instance, can be heard as an anacrusis to its own cadence.

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)

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 More on this topic
Upbeat (jazz) <http://oxfordmusiconline.com/
grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/
9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-
e-2000461600> in Oxford Music Online <http://
oxfordmusiconline.com>

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