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In a piece that starts with an anacrusis/pickup measure and ends, or ends a repeating section, with a compensating incomplete measure, is there a term for that final measure?

  • incomplete measure can describe both the starting and ending measures.
  • anacrusis and pickup refers only to the starting measure.
  • ??? refers only to the ending measure?

2 Answers 2

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I don't think there is a specific term for it. Cute options would be calling it a katacrusis or a dropoff bar, with a somewhat moderate chance of people getting your meaning. They would also be sort-of candidates for an official term if such a one would often be asked for. But I don't think that happens often enough that some term would have had a chance to be solidly established.

P.S.: I see that Wikipedia in its entry for "anacrusis" refers to the completing bar as "complement" which seems as nice a term as any.

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The simplest way to describe it would be to use its bar number. As for an actual name of this kind of incomplete bar; I don’t know of one.

Incidentally, a pickup bar at the beginning of a piece is bar 0.

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  • Never noticed 'bar 0' before - but it's right. Still learning... +1.
    – Tim
    Oct 12, 2021 at 6:32

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