Yuefu
The Han music bureau — and the songs it collected
Related
Yuefu first names the Han dynasty's music bureau, which collected folk songs and organised court music and dance; later it names the songs it collected and transmitted (yuefu poetry). It brought popular sound into the court and court taste back to the people.
It differs from yayue: yayue is ceremonial court music, while yuefu is closer to an institution of collection and adaptation. The usual mistake is to think yuefu is only poetry — it is first a musical institution; the poems we read today are lyrics whose tunes are lost.
Read deeper → yayue
Sources
- 乐府的官署性质与乐府诗传统，参《中国音乐词典》与 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "China"；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.