incidental music
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of incidental music
First recorded in 1860–65
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The show’s theme was a cocktail culture cover of “Crazy Train”; incidental music transitioning one scene to the next was intentionally reminiscent of 1950s sitcoms.
From Salon • Jul. 24, 2025
Franz Schubert, master melodist and progenitor of the song cycle, never wrote for the theater with success, producing scores for singspiels, operas and incidental music that collect dust on the shelf.
From New York Times • Nov. 23, 2022
The Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra, under the direction of Reinhardt’s longtime music director, Einar Nilson, performed the overture and incidental music Felix Mendelssohn composed for the play.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 2, 2022
The evening opened with “The Consecration of the House,” an overture Beethoven wholly revised in 1822 from incidental music originally composed a decade earlier for August von Kotzebue’s play, “The Ruins of Athens.”
From Washington Post • Jan. 28, 2022
In the spring of 1921 a Paris music hall asked me if I could let them have a few pages of incidental music for a little sketch, within the range of their audience.
From An Autobiography by Stravinsky, Igor
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
