Incidental music
In later centuries music was used for all types of serious drama.  Sometimes large orchestras 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 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 Spanish oppression of the Netherlands which is what the play is about.  Schubert’s famous Rosamunde overture comes from a play called Die Zauberharfe (The Magic Harp).  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.  Many other composers wrote incidental music, e.g. Sibelius (for Maeterlinck’s play Pelléas et Mélisande) and Grieg (for Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt).