Dictionary of Music - Birding America

Indy, d′, Vincent 191styles, much as the baroque organist must haverelied on certain standard practices and ideas inworking out improvisations. Since the 1940s, however,jazz performers have broadened their musicalheritage, including elements from contemporaryserious music, such as chromatic harmonies, serialtechniques, etc. At the same time, serious composersbegan to admit improvisational styles and techniquesto their music in attempts to make the musicalform appear to grow out of a live performance.Among those who have worked along these lines areGunther Schuller, Lukas Foss, Morton Subotnick,Pauline Oliveros, and Frederic Rzewski. A somewhatextreme example is Pauline Oliveros’s SonicMeditation I (1974), in which any number of personssit in a circle, observe their own breathing, andgradually utter any sounds they choose. Improvisationalso is used in rock and new age music.Another kind of music in which improvisationhas long played an important role is folk music,whose very development depends on changes graduallymade by performers over a period of manyyears. Also, improvisation is common in many kindsof non-Western music, although often within verystrict guidelines (as, for example, in the IndianRAGA).incalzando (ēn′′käl tsän′dô) Italian. A directionto perform with increasing warmth and speed.incidental music Music written for performancewith a play or other theater piece, including worksto be played before the play begins (overtures,preludes), pieces to be played between the acts(interludes, entr’actes), and sometimes pieces playedduring the course of the action (dances, backgroundmusic for actors’ speeches, marches, etc.). Althoughmost such music is instrumental, songs performedduring the course of a play are also consideredincidental music.Incidental music is so called because the musicusually is not basic to the play, that is, the play couldbe performed without it and would still make sense.In many cases the music, too, can stand alone, andtoday a considerable amount of music originallywritten for plays is performed by itself, the playsbeing long forgotten, or rarely performed, or performedwithout music. The English composerThomas Arne (1710–1778) wrote incidental musicfor many plays, including John Milton’s masqueComus, but is mainly remembered for the song“Rule Britannia,” part of his music for the masqueAlfred (1740). Often the music is put together intosuites. Examples of this kind include Bizet’s musicfor L’Arlésienne (“The Woman of Arles”), vonSuppé’s music for Dichter und Bauer (“Poet andPeasant”), Beethoven’s music for Egmont and DieRuinen von Athen (“The Ruins of Athens”),Tchaikovsky’s music for Hamlet, Grieg’s for PeerGynt, Balakirev’s for King Lear, Schumann’s forManfred, Khatchaturian’s for Masquerade, VaughanWilliams’s for The Wasps, and, perhaps most famousof all, Mendelssohn’s for A Midsummer Night’sDream. Occasionally incidental music is so elaboratethat it becomes a major work (not just a suite) inits own right. This happened to portions of RichardStrauss’s music for Molière’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme,which Strauss later made into a full-fledgedopera, Ariadne auf Naxos. See also FILM MUSIC.inciso (ēn chē′zô) Italian. A direction to performin a sharply marked, accented manner.indeciso (ēn′′de chē′zô) Italian. A direction toperform in a hesitant, tentative manner.indeterminacySee under ALEATORY MUSIC.Indy, d′ (daN dē′), Vincent (vaN säN′),1851–1931. A French composer and teacher,whose music shows the combined influence of Wagner,Liszt, and Franck. D’Indy was also interested inmedieval music, particularly Gregorian chant, and in1894 he helped found the Schola Cantorum of Paris,a private conservatory of music that originally wasto teach plainsong and the Palestrina style, but soonbroadened its aims and became one of the world’soutstanding music schools. D’Indy taught compositionthere, and he wrote an important manual, LeCours de composition musicale (“A Course in MusicalComposition”), which is still used today. D’Indycomposed all kinds of music—operas, symphonicmusic, chamber works, choral music, songs, andpiano and organ music—but he was at his best in