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Upbeat or anacrusis — one or more notes before the first full bar, leading into the downbeat.
The Auftakt creates momentum leading into the first strong beat. Many of the greatest melodies begin with an upbeat — it creates a sense of arrival on the downbeat. When conducting, the Auftakt determines the character of what follows: a gentle upbeat leads to a lyrical phrase; a sharp upbeat to an energetic one.
Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 — the three eighth-note Auftakt before the held note is one of music's most famous upbeats.
Auftakt 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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