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Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom

Robert Hutchinson

Section 10.7 Anticipation

An anticipation is a non-chord tone that anticipates the arrival of the next chord and is often found at cadences, as in the next example.
Figure 10.7.1. George Frideric Handel, Rinaldo, “Lascia ch’io pianga” (1711)
Here is an example of an anticipation in popular music.
Figure 10.7.2. Debbie Harry and Giorgio Moroder, “Call Me” (1980)
Sometimes syncopation (Definition 4.6.1) will lead to an anticipation of a note in a chord in the following measure, as occurs at the ends of bars 1, 2, and 3 of the “Call Me” example.
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