Tunes

Among the various musical phenomena brought about by Sui-Tang entertainment music, the flourishing of tunes stands out as the most important one. In recent years, tunes have increasingly been recognized as the origin and initial form of the ci lyric that appeared in the Song dynasty. After 1949, they were also incorporated into discussions as a significant part of Tang-Song music in books on the history of Chinese music. Yang Yinliu 楊蔭瀏 pointed out that a tune is “a folk song that has been selected, recommended, and reworked—it has actually become a kind of art song distinct from common folk songs.” 1 Zhang Shibin 張世彬 said, “Tunes can be traced back to the Sui dynasty.” 2 The distinctive characteristics of entertainment music lay in its continuous absorption of Hu music to reform old songs and produce new ones. Tunes of the Tang and Song dynasties were songs within the scope of entertainment music, so if we consider the period in which they appeared, we should take the time when the eighty-four modes of entertainment music were proposed as the upper limit. Liao Fushu 廖輔叔 stated: The most important feature of tunes does not lie solely in their folk origin, instrumental accompaniment, or uneven-lined lyrics, nor in their combination with Hu music, but rather in their social basis and content—they were a new type of song that originated in the countryside and spread to the cities. 3