- A “curtain tune” is a 17th C. theater music genre: music to be played while the curtain is being raised on a play or a semi-opera.1
- This Curtain Tune in C Major comes from The Rare Theatrical, a manuscript collection of orchestral music by Locke.
- The pieces in The Rare Theatrical were not terribly well labeled by the copyist, so we don’t know what play this particular curtain tune was meant for.2
Sources
- Margaret Laurie, “Curtain tune,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed November 7, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000006964.
- Peter Holman, “Locke [Lock], Matthew,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed November 7, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000016848.