Call the tune

Call the tune means to be in control of events and derives from the expression who pays the piper, calls the tune. Whoever pays the piper has every right to determine what tunes the piper will play and this expression dates from the late 19th century although there is an earlier allusion from William Congreve’s Love for Love (1695) Act II, Scene II, “I warrant you, if he danced till doomsday, he thought I was to pay the piper.”