From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishset pieceˌset ˈpiece noun [countable] 1 AWAY/MANNERpart of a play, piece of music, painting etc that follows a well-known formal pattern or style, and is often very impressive The trial scene is a classic set piece.2 British English a move such as a free kick or a corner in a game of football, hockey etc
Examples from the Corpus
set piece• We might think, in retrospect, that it was a set piece of rather obvious connivance.• The State of the Union address is one of the great set pieces of American public life.• The Laurel and Hardy set piece was the ordinary situation from which sprang a coiling spiral of disaster.• Eleven minutes later Andrew McBride saw his set piece effort deflected past the post by a defender's stick. 