incidental music

American  

noun

1. music intended primarily to point up or accompany parts of the action of a play or to serve as transitional material between scenes.

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incidental music British  

noun

1. background music for a film, television programme, etc

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Etymology

Origin of incidental music

First recorded in 1860–65

Example Sentences

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

The calliope-heavy incidental music sounds like a carousel.

From Salon • Dec. 5, 2021

Of course, an enormous amount of incidental music has been composed for Hamlet.

From Shakespeare and Music by Wilson, Christopher