Big Suites

Big suites ( daqu 大曲) refer to complex musical compositions consisting of multiple sections, emerging from the combined performance of instrumental music, vocal singing, and dance. The term daqu first appears in Cai Yong’s 蔡邕 Admonitions for Women ( Nü xun 女訓), which states: “When playing a xiaoqu (small tune), one stops after five rounds; for a daqu , one stops after three” (凡鼓小曲，五終則止；大曲，三終則止). 1 However, in this context, daqu merely refers to a longer piece for the zither, without involving the integrated performance of music, song, and dance. It does not carry the later meaning of big suites as a specialized musical genre. The earliest extant examples of big suites can be found in the “Treatise on Music” (“Yue zhi” 樂志) in the Book of Song ( Song shu 宋書), which records fifteen such compositions. Big suites flourished in the Tang and Song dynasties, and their influence extended to variety dramas ( zaju 雜劇) and strange tales ( chuanqi 傳奇), attracting growing attention from modern scholars of musical history. The origins of Tang-Song big suites can also be traced back to the fifteen pieces documented in the Book of Song .