When I first sat down into my balcony seat, I took note of all of the instruments present on stage. They were: a sitar, a gourd percussion instrument, a keyboard, a drum, a gong, a cymbal, and an accordion. The music in The Valley of Astonishment had three purposes: to illustrate how synesthetes perceive synesthesia, appropriate background theme music, and sound effects.
Even though the philosophical backbone of the play only burrowed itself an inch deep into my brain (we don’t have the pleasure of re-reading and absorbing meanings during a live play, unfortunately), the deep sentiments and meanings of it resonated through the music. Middle Eastern (or Persian, in this case) music hummed through the sitar whilst the actors recited excerpts at different times throughout the play from The Conference of the Birds, the Persian poem which one can assume the inspiration for the play came from. I may be a crazy English major, but I really saw the stage shiver with heat waves like it would in the hot climate of Persia (Iran). Another touching musical theme was the one presumably for Sammy Costas- though it may have been a theme for all of the general synesthetes. In my memory it sounds like the delicate piano introduction to the theme from the movie To Kill a Mockingbird. In my logical memory, though, it might have been a Bach piano piece. Something quietly intellectual, like a lullaby. The flute solo at the ended set an eerie finish to the play. I’m still trying to process the meaning of it, so I really can’t comment on its interpretation.
The music also picked up when the few synesthetes were giving their stories away to the cognitive psychologists. It became bubbly and random, but harmoniously so. The musicians were actively trying to produce colors for the audience with “normal” senses. During these tales, the music changed to fit the mood and setting of them- old jazz playing when the man painted, carny show music during the magic tricks. The two instrumentalists pulled off an authentic sound for each section.
Oh, the sound effects. They came out during the humorous parts of the play. The sitar bowed out EEG results, the gourd popped out the passage of time, the cymbal and drum overrode the extensive recitations of Sammy. Very silly- a good comic relief in between the very vague wise sections.
For me, the music explained the subtext I was unable to ascertain from the spoken text. It gave me the emotions and moods I think Peter Brook wanted me to feel: mystical, nostalgic, spooked, and entranced.