EPISODE, an incident occurring in the history of a nation, an institution or an individual, especially with the significance of being an interruption of an ordered course of events. The word is derived from a word (E7r€La000s) with a technical meaning in ancient Greek tragedy. It is defined by Aristotle (Poetics, 12) as µEpos iiXov Tpayc.p8ias To jera v oXwv xopcnwv µeXtyv, all the scenes ; that is, which fall between the choric songs. (Ei0000s), or entrance, is generally applied to the entrance of the chorus, but the reference may be to that of the actors at the close of the choric songs. In early Greek tragedy the parts spoken by the actors were considered of subsidiary importance to those sung by the chorus, and it is from this aspect that the meaning of the word, as some thing which breaks off the course of events, is derived.
See A. E. Haigh, The Tragic Drama of the Greeks, p. 353 0896).
In music, episode is a more or less distinctive but subordinate section of an instrumental work serving to impart variety and interest to the general design. Beethoven raised the episode to its highest point as an element of sonata form, though in the case of fugues the value of such accessory sections had been recognized long previously.