| incidental music | |
| —n | |
| background music for a film, television programme, etc | |
| an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle. |
| an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance. |
incidental music
music written to accompany or point up the action or mood of a dramatic performance on stage, film, radio, television, or recording; to serve as a transition between parts of the action; or to introduce or close the performance. Because it is written to enhance a nonmusical medium, most incidental music makes little impression on public taste. But some incidental music survives in its own right. Significant examples of such lasting work are Ludwig van Beethoven's music for J.W. von Goethe's Egmont (1810), Felix Mendelssohn's music for William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Georges Bizet's L'Arlesienne suite for Alphonse Daudet's play, and Edvard Grieg's incidental music for Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt.
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