Music of lost souls Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Music of lost souls - Essay Example In this way, music becomes a parallel narrative that generally reinforces the primary visual-verbal narrative and supplements it. In the opening instructions to the first scene of the play itself, Williams has described the presence of music from a near-by bar room, which he says should correspond the â€Å"air† of â€Å"lyricism† and â€Å"decay† expressed in the physicality of the scene (1). He has specifically mentioned the music to be used in the play as, â€Å"Blue piano† (1). This general mood-creating function of music continues up to the last scene. Music of New Orleans lower-middle class The music is not classy but coming out of a â€Å"tinny† piano, which indicates the socio-economic lowliness of the people that inhabit the play excluding Blanche (Williams, 1). It is particularly noticeable that from the very beginning of the play, music is just like any other background noise for the characters. This is why nobody in the first scene seems to even be aware of the piano playing. By bringing in the music, from the very beginning of the play, Williams has been able to treat music just like a stage property-like an umbrella or a table seen on stage. Thus music looses its aura and becomes just like the garbage on the street, or a discarded plastic bottle on the pavement. Music of change The social setting of the play is another aspect, which gets enhanced by music. The play happens in a period when, the typical social characteristics of the South are undergoing a transformation by the arrival of immigrant settlers, like Kowalski (who is the son of a Polish immigrant). The gaudiness reflected in the piano music represents the superficial and temporary nature of the changing culture, brought about by the influx of immigrants- which is why the music is described as â€Å"honky-tonk† and â€Å"sleazy†, meaning working class and shabby (Williams, 115). This ambience connotes the culture of the immigrants, who nat urally constitute the working class because they are mostly unskilled laborers employed in menial jobs. The music is constantly oozing with melancholy, which shows the resigned yet conflicting aspect of life in this synergy of cultures- a hesitant bonding with the mixing and marriages of rich and the poor. Music of survival All the same, the music some how compensates for the poverty and difficulties of the people in the play. Williams has instructed that the piano music in the play â€Å"expresses the spirit of the life† (1). It can be seen that just like the oddity represented by the presence of music in such an ambience of decay, the people around also seem to be not bothered by the poverty that surrounds them. They are used to it, conditioned to accept the realities of life, get along with their routine life, joking laughing and poking fun at each other. To start with and end with music The author has used music in the beginning of every scene to give the reader or specta tor, an inkling of what is about to come. In this way, the music anchors each scene and gives it a fresh beginning. In the first scene the music gets louder when Blanche tells Stella that her home estate, Belle Reve, has been lost (Williams, 13). Here, the music heightens the drama and indicates the enormous dimension of the loss: BLANCHE: (Slowly) The loss-the loss†¦ STELLA: Belle Reve? Lost, is it? No! BLANCHE: Yes, Stella. (They stare at each other across the yellow- checked linoleum of the table. BLANCHE slowly nods her head and STELLA looks slowly down at her hands folded on the table. The music of the â€Å"blue piano† grows louder) (Williams, 13). In this part of the play, it is as if telling there is more than what is verbally told, to the story. It is also suggestive that the characters and events of the play have a