Ancient Chinese banquet music
Historical term referring to a genre of music performed at banquets in ancient China, later adopted in Japanese court music contexts.
Yan music is a form of music that developed in the Tang dynasty court.
In Japan, there remain gagaku pieces influenced by yan music.
Variant kanji form; 宴 suggests 'banquet' and is also used for this term.
From Chinese 燕樂 (yànyuè), literally 'banquet music'. The term entered Japanese as a historical musicological loanword.