curtain tune

noun

1

chiefly British, old-fashioned : the overture to a play

2

: a piece of music performed between the acts of a play

An overture … is not the same as a curtain tune, which can be used for any music which accompanies the drawing up of the curtain, although the two are often used interchangeably.

—Vanessa Rogers, in Henry Fielding in Our Time, 2008

called also act tune, curtain music

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