Incidental Music
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Incidental music is written to frame or underscore spoken drama, so it favors compact gestures, richly atmospheric interludes, sharply charactered entr’actes, ceremonial marches, and instantly legible melodic signals. Unlike full stage scores, it often works in fragments, appearing between scenes or beneath text rather than continuously carrying an entire performance.
History
Although older theatrical traditions used music throughout, the classical incidental tradition flowered especially in the 18th and 19th centuries with works such as Beethoven’s Egmont, Schubert’s Rosamunde, Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Grieg’s Peer Gynt, Bizet’s L’Arlésienne, and Walton’s Shakespeare and film-related theatre projects; many such scores later entered the concert hall as suites.
Defining artists
Essential listening
- Peer Gynt — Royal Philharmonic OrchestraSpotifyYouTube
- A Midsummer Night's Dream — London Symphony OrchestraSpotifyYouTube
- Rosamunde — Philharmonia OrchestraSpotifyYouTube
- Egmont — Staatskapelle DresdenSpotifyYouTube
- L'Arlésienne — Berlin PhilharmonicSpotifyYouTube
- Henry V — BBC PhilharmonicSpotifyYouTube
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Oxford Music Online
- Grove Music Online
- score and recording notes from Chandos, Decca, and Naxos