Incidental music is a generic term first used in the early 19th century to describe music introducing or accompanying stage performances in spoken theater. Along with stage design, costumes, and props, it has been an integral part of theatrical performance practice since antiquity. Dramatic authors generally stipulated it directly in stage directions, whereupon it would ultimately be written by a composer, often as a single work comprising several numbers, or else be arranged by a Kapellmeister or musical d…