incidental music

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.

incidental music

noun

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of incidental music¹

First recorded in 1860–65

Example Sentences

The closest thing, a staging of Mendelssohn’s incidental music to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” was canceled last minute for supposed scheduling difficulties.

From Los Angeles Times

Originally the concert was to include a staged performance by director Alberto Arvelo of Mendelssohn’s incidental music to “Midsummer’s Night Dream” with vocal soloists and the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

From Los Angeles Times

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

There have been many settings of “Hamlet,” from full operas, to overtures, to incidental music.

From New York Times

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