sb. [UP- 2.]
1. Mus. ‘The beat of a bar at which the hand is raised; an unaccented beat’ (Stainer and Barrett).
1869. Ouseley, Counterp., iii. The up-beat may be either a concord or a discord. Ibid. (1874), Musical Form, 63. The second phrase concludes with the third of the tonic, but at the up-beat.
2. Pros. a. An anacrusis. b. An arsis or stressed syllable.
1883. H. M. Kennedy, trans. Ten Brink’s E. E. Lit., 194. Orm reproduced the foreign metre with pains-taking accuracy. The up-beat (auftakt, anacrusis) never fails.
1899. D. Hyde, Lit. Hist. Irel., xxxviii. 532. If we take it for granted that the syllables in which rhyme or alliteration appear must also bear the accent or up-beat of the voice.
