- The music makes everything the actors say sound more significant. Also creates atmosphere: for example, music reminiscent of something ancient/mystical when one of the actors talks about the phoenix.
- Interesting to observe the musicians. They do their work and watch the show when they’re not playing.
- Use of untraditional/non-Western instruments
- The actors’ accents are a kind of music of their own. Gives everything they say an air of importance and causes the audience to listen better to what they say because the accent makes listening to them more interesting.
- Drumming on the wooden pan/drum represents crazy rushed staccato words – creative! (in reference to the Wall Street journal being read by Sammy’s editor, what she says “he’d read so badly”)
- Also use hollow tapping on the wooden pan/drum instrument for rushing, hurried sounds – creative use of music, representing actions
- In a similar vein – I like how the string instrument was used to play short, sharp notes to represent short words or actions
- Turns out the musicians don’t just watch; they participate in the acting too
- Genius – using the string instrument to provide electronic beeping/sound effects for the monitors measuring the brain waves and the printout
- When the pianist was acting as a synesthete in the lab and was instructed to play a piece of Bach he liked – suddenly the air was stolen from the room. I was removed from the play while he gave us a moving little private concert; it was a little bit devastating when it was over.
- Sometimes the music adds gravity or importance to the actors’ words or illustrates the words, kind of like the concept of form follows function. For example, when one of the actors said, “Broad, very broad,” the string musician played a long, wide sound on his instrument that corresponded extremely well with the words.
- The music is illustrative of the story, so the music style changes with different characters. When we hear the story of the man who paints to music, the accompanying music becomes jazzy and notably different than the background music for Sammy’s character.
- Another very clever idea – the painter character turns a dial in midair, and suddenly the volume of the music turns up, and when he turns the imaginary dial to off, the musicians stop playing very abruptly. There is a sudden stark silence.
- The music style is adapted appropriately for each character, so it lends a lot of color to the performers. For example, the music for the card trick magic show fleshed out magician’s persona by establishing a certain mood.
- The music is kind of scenery – each scene has its signature theme so that you are reminded where you are as the scenes change.
Really interesting and thorough analysis of the music in the play, thank you! Just one (almost unachieveable) question: Do you know which Bach’s piece the pianist plays?