Forms: (4 tun), 4– tune; also 5 tuyn(e, (tyune, teone), twn(e, 5–6 tewne, toyn(e, 6 Sc. tuin, tone, toon, 6–7 Sc. toone; cf. also TONE sb. [A peculiar phonetic variant of TONE sb., appearing first in 14th c.: the Sc. toon, tuin (= tön, tün) show the normal Sc. representative of ME. ō, as in muin, suin, duin, shuin (shoes).]
† 1. A (musical) sound or tone; esp. the sound of the voice: = TONE sb. 1. Obs.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 355. Þey makeþ wel mery armonye and melody wiþ wel þicke tunes [Caxtox tewnes], werbeles, and nootes.
c. 1400. Laud Troy Bk., 14292. He tolde him of the deth of Brunes; Then were mad hidus tuynes Off many a gentil damysel.
1413. Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton), V. i. (1859), 72. There was no tune of musik that ther was forgeten.
1435. Misyn, Fire of Love, II. iii. 73. Emonge aungels twnys it has a acceptabyll melody.
c. 1450. Songs & Carols (E.E.T.S.), 89/53. Thus seyth þis byrde, in tyunes gay.
1508. Fisher, Penit. Ps. xxxviii. Wks. (E.E.T.S.), I. 71. In the whiche swete soundes we shall here so grete plente & dyuersite of tunes as euer was herde before.
1560. Ingelend, Disob. Child, C ij. Her tonge and her tune is very shryll.
1573–80. Baret, Alv., T 415. The tune of the Harpe, canor lyræ. Ouid.
1592. Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 431. Melodious discord, heauenly tune harsh sounding.
a. 1600. Montgomerie, Misc. Poems, vi. 31. Lamenting toons best lyks me for relief.
c. 1600. Shaks., Sonn., cxli. Nor are mine eares with thy toungs tune delighted.
c. 1614. Sir W. Mure, Dido & Æneas, III. 20. And als the light-envying owl, alone, With tragick toones her smarte and sorrow shew.
1706. Prior, Ode to Queen, 9. High as their Trumpets Tune His Lyre he strung.
1819. Keats, Isabella, iv. Lorenzo, if thy lips breathe not love’s tune.
a. 1849. Hor. Smith, Addr. Mummy, ii. Thou hast a tongue: come, let us hear its tune.
b. Applied to a special affected or peculiar intonation in speaking: cf. 2, and TONE sb. 5 c.
1783. Blair, Lect. Rhet., xxxiii. II. 214. If any one, in Public Speaking, shall have formed to himself a certain melody or tune, which requires rest and pauses of its own, distinct from those of the sense, he has … contracted one of the worst habits into which a Public Speaker can fall.
2. A rhythmical succession of musical tones produced by (or composed for) an instrument or voice; an air, melody (with or without the harmony which accompanies it). Now the leading sense. (Not in TONE sb.)
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), III. 207. By the sleuþe of þe manere of tunes [orig. modorum tarditate].
1491. Cartular. St. Nicholai Aberdon. (New Spald. Cl.), I. 250. Chaplannis yat kepis nocht ye Seculorum and twne gewin yame be ye chantour.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, lxxxii. 29. Ȝour commone menstrallis hes no tone, Bot ‘Now the day dawis,’ and ‘Into Joun.’
1535. Coverdale, Ezek. xxxiii. 32. As a balet yt hath a swete tune, and is pleasaunt to synge.
1591. Shaks., Two Gent., I. ii. 82. Best sing it to the tune of Light o’ Loue.
a. 1600. Montgomerie, Misc. Poems, xlviii. 94. Vp uent our saillis, tauntit to the huins; The trumpets soundit tuentie mirrie tuins.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Past., IX. 62. The Tune I still retain, but not the Words.
1717. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to Pope, 1 April. The tunes are extremely gay and lively.
1798. Coleridge, Anc. Mar., V. 81. A hidden brook In the leafy month of June, That to the sleeping woods all night Singeth a quiet tune.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, x. The tune,… played upon a viol, was gay and sprightly in the commencement.
Proverb. He who pays the piper, calls the tune.
b. spec. A musical setting of a hymn or psalm, usually in four-part harmony, intended for use in public worship; a hymn-tune.
c. 1450. Capgrave, Life St. Aug., xix. 27. Ambrose mad hem to be sunge delectabily with consent of dyuers tewnys whech had not be used þere be-for.
1567. Gude & Godlie B. (S.T.S.), 7. Heir followis the Catechisme put in meter, to be sung with the tone [edd. 1578, etc. tune].
1795. Mason, Ch. Mus., ii. 193. Adapted, if not originally written, to one particular Melody or Tune.
1833. T. Hook, Parson’s Dau., I. i. Which [house-clock] strikes every hour, chimes the quarters, and plays Rule Britannia and the Hundreth Psalm tune two hundred and fifty times in the four and twenty hours.
1908. [Miss Fowler], Betw. Trent & Ancholme, 50. The tune (‘Oxford’) was brought by our grandfather from thence.
† c. Applied to the mediæval ecclesiastical modes (the eight tunes): see MODE sb. 1 a (b), and cf. TONE sb. 3 b. Obs.
1597. Morley, Introd. Mus., 147. The churchmen for keeping their Keyes haue deuised certaine notes commonlie called the eight tunes, so that according to the tune which is to be obserued,… if it beginne in such a key, it may end in such and such others. Annot., The eight tunes.… The tunes (which are also called modi musici) the practitioners do define, to be a rule whereby the melodie or euerie song is directed.
d. (In full, act-tune.) A piece of music played between the acts of a play. Cf. ENTR’ACTE b.
1889. W. H. Husk, in Grove, Dict. Mus., s.v. Tune, In the latter half of the 17th century and first quarter of the 18th century act-tunes were composed specially for every play…. But act-tunes, now styled ‘Entr’actes,’ have been occasionally composed in modern times.
1891. Cent. Dict., Tune.… 4. Same as entr’acte. Sometimes called act-tune.
e. The tune the (old) cow died of: humorously applied to a grotesque or unmusical succession of sounds, or a tedious ill-played piece of music.
Supposed to refer to an ‘old ballad’ in which a piper who had nothing else to give his cow ‘took his pipe and played a tune, and bade the cow consider.’ See N. & Q., 11th Ser. XI. 309.
1836. Lady Granville, Lett. (1894), II. 218. The tune the old cow died of throughout, grunts and groans of instruments.
3. The state of being in the proper pitch; correct intonation in singing, or in instrumental music; agreement in pitch, unison, or harmony (with something): mostly in phr. in or out of tune; cf. TONE sb. 2 b, c. Also, simply, the pitch of a musical note (quot. 1694, obs.).
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 82. Whanne an harpe is weel sett in tewne.
1450–1530. Myrr. our Ladye, 56. That all the notes be songe, as they are in youre bokes, eche of them in theyr owne tewne.
1483. Cath. Angl., 396/1. Oute of Tune, dissonus,… discors.
1530. Rastell, Bk. Purgat., II. xviii. When hys harpe is out of tune.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VII., 3. To set all the strynges in a monacorde and tune.
1602. Shaks., Ham., III. i. 166. Like sweet Bels iangled out of tune [2nd Qo. time], and harsh.
1617–8. in Swayne, Sarum Churchw. Acc. (1896), 167. For keeping the Organ in tune.
1694. W. Holder, Harmony, ii. (1731), 5. The Tune of a Note … is constituted by the Measure and Proportion of Vibrations of the sonorous Body.
1707. Watts, Hymn, ‘Let others boast how strong they be,’ iii. Strange that a harp of thousand strings Should keep in tune so long!
1773. Phil. Trans., LXIII. 263. The B flat of the spinnet … was perfectly in tune with the great bell of St. Paul’s.
1884. Tennyson, Becket, Prol. 16. My voice is harsh here, not in tune.
b. fig. in phr. in tune, out of tune, in or out of order or proper condition; in or out of harmony with some person or thing. (See also 4, and cf. TONE sb. 2 c.)
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot. (Rolls), II. 390. On euerie syde thair wes richt mony slane, Or tha culd weill be put in tune agane.
1579. Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 280/2. How many occasions are there to bring vs out of tune?
1605. Rowlands, Hell’s Broke Loose, 21. If Siluer in my Pockets do not ring, All’s out of tune with mee in eu’ry thing.
1638. W. Mountagu, in Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.), I. 282. Fire-locks … are not mendable when out of tune.
c. 1680. Beveridge, Serm. (1729), I. 332. If our bodies be out of tune so are our minds too.
1737. Bracken, Farriery Impr. (1757), II. 100. If you have a Horse in good Tune and Order.
1887. Rider Haggard, Jess, xi. Bessie’s mind was not quite in tune with the profundities of that learned journal.
c. Phren. The faculty of perception of musical pitch, and thus of melody and harmony.
1860. Mayne, Expos. Lex., Tune. Phrenol., a faculty (its organ at the lateral part of the forehead immediately above Number and Order) giving the perception of harmony and melody.
d. transf. Harmony or accordance in respect of vibrations other than those of sound; spec. between the transmitter and receiver in wireless telegraphy.
1909. Westm. Gaz., 29 April, 5/3. You see, we must have a commercial or general ‘tune,’ and when that is known any person installing the same ‘tune’ can intercept the messages…. No one could intercept messages in such a case unless they had instruments of the same ‘tune.’
1911. Webster, s.v., To place the receiver of a system of wireless telegraphy in tune with the transmitter so as to respond to impulses given out by the latter.
† 4. Style, manner, or ‘tone’ (of discourse or writing). Obs. (Cf. TONE 5 d.)
1537. Cromwell, in Merriman, Life & Lett. (1902), II. 74. I must nedes now … write unto you in an other tune.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 107. Missive letters … in this tune; To Ætius thrice Consul, the grones of Britans.
b. To change one’s tune, sing another tune (etc.): fig. to change one’s tone, speak in a different strain. (Often directly fig. from 1 or 2.)
1524. St. Papers Hen. VIII., VI. 349. Percace the said Frenche King wolde by this tyme have spoken of an other toyne.
a. 1800[?]. Wedding Robin Hood & Lit. John, ii., in Child, Ballads (1886), IV. 432. O gin I live and bruik my life, I’ll gar ye change your tune.
1890. [see SING v.1 10 a].
5. fig. Frame of mind, temper, mood, disposition, humour; cf. TONE 8.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, III. iv. 41. Hero. How now? do you speake in the sick tune? Beat. I am out of all other tune, me thinkes. Ibid. (1605), Lear, IV. iii. 41 (Qo.). [Lear] some time in his better tune remembers, What we are come about.
1647. T. Calvert, Heart Salve for Wounded Soul, 33. This is the tone and tune of men in distress.
a. 1691. Flavel, Sea Deliverances (1754), 165. Our fancies were out of tune to be pleasant with anything.
1785. Burns, Holy Fair, xxvi. They’re a’ in famous tune For crack that day.
1833. Moore, Mem. (1854), VI. 335. Being in but bad tune for a fête.
6. Phrases. To the tune of (fig. from 2): † a. According to the gist of, in accordance with (obs.). b. To the amount or sum of. So to some tune (to a considerable extent), etc.
1607. Hieron, Wks., I. 405. Singing nothing but to the tune of Judas ‘What will ye give me?’
1692. R. L’Estrange, Fables, ccclvi. (1694), 372. This came to the Bishop’s Ear, who presently sent for the Curate, Rattled him to some Tune.
1714. R. Fiddes, Pract. Disc., II. 95. This is exactly to the tune of the old popular objection.
1716. M. Davies, Athen. Brit., II. 296. To Libel the Bishop … by exhibiting Articles against him to the Tune of 56.
1722. De Foe, Col. Jack (1840), 113. To go over … into Flanders, to be knocked on the head at the tune of 3s. 6d. a week.
1797. Wonderf. Advant. Lottery (Cheap Repos. Tr.), 8. I had demands on me yesterday to the tune of 300 l.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, VII. xvi. ¶ 13. Other articles were much to the same tune.
1874. Punch, 22 Aug., 76/2. A defaulter to the imposing tune of £10,000.
1883. Manch. Exam., 24 Nov., 5/1. His peasant countrymen … have been spoiled and pilled, and whipt to every tune.
7. Comb., as tune-grinder, -hummer, -maker, -phrase, -tinkler, -weaving; tune-composed, -led, -skilled adjs.
1606. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iv. II. Magnif., 898. Their Tune-skill’d feet in so true Time doe fall.
1756. Cowper, Connoisseur, No. 138, ¶ 4. The Whistlers or Tune-hummers, who never articulate at all.
1795. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Frogmore Fête, Wks. 1812, III. 315. Musicians and racers, tune-grinders and dancers.
1816. J. Gilchrist, Philos. Etym., 234. A tune-composed style.
1898. T. Hardy, Wessex Poems, 118. She trod the flags with tune-led feet.
1901. Palestine Exploration Fund Q. Statem., Oct., 420. One tune-phrase, repeated to every line, serves for a whole song.
