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An upbeat — one or more notes that precede the first downbeat of a phrase. The Greek/English equivalent of Auftakt.
Many melodies begin with an anacrusis rather than on the downbeat. The anacrusis creates forward momentum and a sense of arrival. When writing melodies, experiment with both anacrusic and downbeat openings — they have fundamentally different characters.
Mozart's "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" — the famous opening melody begins with an anacrusis (two eighth notes leading to the downbeat).
Anacrusis is one of 228 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary, where every definition is written around how composers actually use the word.
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