| music intended primarily to point up or accompany parts of the action of a play or to serve as transitional material between scenes. |
| incidental music n. Music composed to accompany the action or dialogue of a drama or to fill intervals between scenes or acts. |
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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