be fairly defined as formalised melody: for whereas melody is a general term which is applicable to any fragment of music consisting of single notes which has a contour—whether it is found in inner parts or outer, in a motet of Palestrina or a fugue of Bach,—tune is more specially restricted to a strongly outlined part which predominates over its accompaniment or other parts sounding with it, and has a certain completeness of its own. Tune is most familiarly illustrated in settings of short and simple verses of poetry, or in dances, where the outlines of structure are always exceptionally obvious. In modern music of higher artistic value it is less frequently met with than a freer kind of melody, as the improvement in quickness of musical perception which results from the great cultivation of the art in the past centuiy or so, frequently makes the old and familiar methods of defining ideas and subjects superfluous. For fuller discussion of the subject see Melody.
TUNE. ACT-TUNE (Fr. Entr'acte, Germ. Zwischenspiel), sometimes also called Curtain Tune. A piece of instrumental music performed while the curtain or act-drop is down between the acts of a play. In the latter half of the 17th century and first quarter of the 18th century act-tunes were composed specially for every play. The compositions so called comprised, besides the act-tunes proper, the 'first and second music,' tunes played at intervals to beguile the tedium of waiting for the commencement of the play,—for it must be remembered that the doors of the theatre were then opened an hour and a half, or two hours before the play commenced—and the overture. The act-tunes and previous music were principally in dance measures. Examples may be seen in Matthew Lock's 'Instrumental Musick used in The Tempest,' appended to his 'Psyche,' 1675; in Henry Parceli's 'Dioclesian,' 1691; and his 'Collection of Ayres composed for the Theatre,' 1697; and in two collections of 'Theatre Music,' published early in the 18th century; as well as in several MS. collections. During the greater part of the last century movements from the sonatas of Corelli, Handel, Boyce, and others were used as act-tunes, and at present the popular dance music of the day is so employed. But act-tunes, now styled 'Entr'actes,' have been occasionally composed in modern times; the finest specimens are those composed by Beethoven for Goethe's 'Egmont,' by Schubert for 'Rosamunde,' by Weber for 'Preciosa,' by Schumann for 'Manfred,' and by Mendelssohn for Shakspeare's 'Midsummer Night's Dream,' including the Scherzo, the Allegro appassionato, the Andante tranquillo and the world-renowned Wedding March, which serves the double purpose of act-tune and accompaniment to the wedding procession of Theseus and Hippolita, the act-drop rising during its progress. Sir A. Sullivan has also written Entr'actes for 'The Tempest,' 'The Merchant of Venice,' and 'Henry VIII'—some of which will be remembered when his operettas have necessarily yielded to the changes of fashion.
TUNING (To tune; Fr. accorder; Ital. accordare; Germ, stimmeri). The adjustment to a recognised scale of any musical instrument capable of alteration in the pitch of the notes composing it. The violin family, the harp, piano, organ, and harmonium, are examples of instruments capable of being tuned. The accordance of the violin, viola, and violoncello, as is well known, is in fifths which are tuned by the player.[1] The harpist also tunes his harp. But the tuning of the piano, organ, and harmonium, is effected by tuners who acquire their art, in the piano especially, by long practice, and adopt tuning, particularly in this country, as an independent calling, having little to do with the mechanical processes of making the instrument. At Antwerp, as early as the first half of the 17th century, there were harpsichord-tuners who were employed in that vocation only; for instance, in De Liggeren der Antwerpsche Sint Lucasgilde, p. 24, edited by Rombouts and Van Lerius (the Hague) we find named as a master Michiel Colyns, Claversingelstelder Wynmeester, i.e. harpsichord-tuner and son of a master (in modern Flemish Clavecimbel-steller).
In all keyboard instruments the chief difficulty has been found in what is known as 'laying the scale, bearings, or groundwork,' of the tuning; an adjustment of a portion of the compass, at most equal in extent to the stave with the Alto clef
, from which the remainder can be tuned by means of simple octaves and unisons. We have records of these groundworks by which we are enabled to trace the progress of tuning for nearly four hundred years. The earliest are by Schlick (1511), Ammerbach (1571), and Mersenne (1636). It is not however by the first of these in order of time that we discover the earliest method of laying the scale or groundwork, but the second. Ammerbach published at Leipzig in 1571 an 'Orgel oder Instrument Tabulatur,' in which he gives the following directions for the groundwork. We will render this and the examples which follow into modern notation, each pair of notes being tuned together.
For the Naturals (das gelbe Clavier).
For the Sharps (Obertasten).
must be Major Thirds (mussen grosse Terzen sein).
are Minor Thirds (tiefer erklingen).
There is not a word about temperament!
- ↑ The accordances of the guitar, lute, theorbo, and similar instruments tuned by fifths, fourths, and thirds will be found in the descriptions of them.
