What is incidental music and how did Henry Purcell use it in plays?

Incidental music is music composed to accompany or enhance a dramatic performance, such as a play, film, or television program. It serves to project a specific mood, accompany stage action, provide transitions between scenes, or introduce and conclude the performance.1

During his lifetime, Henry Purcell was a prolific composer for the London stage, where the lack of public opera meant that most theatre music consisted of instrumental pieces and songs interpolated into spoken drama. Purcell’s contributions to this genre were significant, as he frequently wrote music for plays and adaptations by prominent writers of his time, including John Dryden, William Congreve, and Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher.21

While much of his work functioned as standard incidental music, Purcell occasionally utilized more extended musical scenes in productions like Dioclesian (1690), King Arthur (1691), and The Fairy Queen (1692). In these works, he demonstrated a gift for passionate musical expression that often transcended the accompanying text, effectively using music to heighten the dramatic intensity of the stage productions.2