What is Incidental music?
{{nosources|date=June 2017}}'''Incidental music''' is [[music]] which has been written for a [[Play (theatre)|play]]. It is not like [[opera]] where there is usually music all the way through. Incidental music will be used between scenes or for particularly important moments in the play or for [[song]]s sung by the actors. It is called “incidental” because the music is not as important as the play. Incidental music dates as far back as [[Ancient Greece]]. It was used in the [[16th century|16th]] and [[17th century|17th centuries]], especially in the plays of [[Shakespeare]] whose characters often sing songs. At this time incidental music was used more often for [[comedy|comedies]] than for [[tragedy|tragedies]]. Tragedies were about important people who were busy ruling their country and having [[war]]s. In the plays they spoke in verse and were too [[noble]] to sing. People thought that comedies were more suitable for including music. The songs were often sung by actors playing the parts of [[shepherd]]s, [[nymph]]s or [[clown]]s. In later centuries music was used for all types of serious drama. Sometimes large [[orchestra]]s were used. Many famous composers wrote music to be played by an orchestra during plays. A famous example is the incidental music for Shakespeare’s “[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]” composed by [[Felix Mendelssohn]] in [[1842]]. Other composers worked with living poets such as [[Goethe]] and [[Friedrich Schiller|Schiller]]. [[Beethoven]] wrote music for Goethe’s play ''[[Egmont]]''. This music is very closely linked to what happens in the story: the [[overture]] describes the harshness of the [[Eighty Years' War|Spanish oppression of the Netherlands]] which is what the play is about. [[Franz Schubert|Schubert’s]] famous ''Rosamunde'' overture comes from a play called ''Die Zauberharfe'' (''The Magic Harp''). [[Robert Schumann|Schumann’s]] music for ''Manfred'' is different: it was never intended to be performed with the play, it was just inspired by Schumann’s imagination.