curtain tune
nounDefinition of curtain tune
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