Music as an art of the theater has its roots in primitive ritual and ceremony and its branches in every modern means of theatrical presentation. Its functions are as varied as the forms require and range from being the primary reason for performance, as in opera, to mere noise, filling a vacuum in imagination for some screen and stage presentations.

Theater music is all music composed to govern, enhance, or support a theatrical conception. Music composed for theatrical purposes obeys different laws than does the music for concert performance or conventional opera. Whereas in opera the music dictates the form in which the dramatic visual imagery is presented and governs its development, in other kinds of theater the music is, at best, an equal partner among its principal elements. In concert, of course, the music is the sole factor that determines the experience.

Theatrical music is variously related to the type of a character and his behavior. Music can accompany character’s actions such as movement and his behavior. In some instances music is dominant, in some it is subservient. If a character is moving quickly, you would have an instrument such as a violin playing rapidly and have it follow his actions. On the other hand, if the character was dragging himself, you would have and instrument such as a cello play slow stretched out notes.

Today we have the technology and tools to make every play performance better and more effective than the ones previously preformed. Different performances are made to suit different audiences. Producers and directors are ones who modify plays in order to satisfy their audience. Every play director has his idea of creating a great impact on the audience. Some of them fail and some succeed. All plays function in a different way and are written to be performed. They are not like prose or poetry. In poetry for example, you can not put extra words or comments, but with a play you can do whatever you like, as long as you have a good imagination and a way of pleasing the audience. In the performance, the director can place music at certain places within the play according to his taste. In my opinion, every play would be boring if it lacked music at some points. With ten years of musical experience, I would agree that all plays should contain some music in order to keep the audience awake. It is totally up to the director of the play to decide where and when he wants it played.

In A Doll’s House, Nora is the character who evolves the most. The reason I chose her as a reference is the fact that she is the character who constantly changes the way she acts in order to accommodate the changes. In other words, she constantly alters her attitude when she goes from one person to another. Nora is a quick motioned, jerky character, who is constantly called by animal names such as bird and squirrel, by her husband Helmer. Therefore, the best sort of music accompanying her would be a flute or a piccolo playing high pitched, quick tones. This music would create more life to the play and would go very well with the actual character.

Act II is the act where Nora makes most changes. As a reader, you are imagining different musicals at different episodes, which satisfy the character’s behavior. Reading the play in this manner creates more meaning as well as more life to the actual play.

In the beginning of the act, Nora talks to Christine. Christine reproaches Nora for having borrowed the money from Dr. Rank to pay for Helmer’s rest cure in Italy. Empathetically the girl denies it, for, she says, she would never allow herself placed in such a ‘horribly painful position’ toward their old friend. Now in this situation, there could be a cello playing deeply in the background. The audience is aware that Nora doesn’t want to stick to the subject, and as soon as Helmer appears, Nora quickly goes to greet him and then coaxes him once more to allow Krogstad to keep his position in the bank. In this instance, as soon as Helmer appears, there could be a change in tempo of the music being played. There could be a flute and a violin playing high, quick notes, to show Nora’s nature and the way she moves to greet Helmer.

Later on, Nora insults Helmer by remarking how unlike him it is to take such ‘a narrow-minded way of looking at things’. At this point Helmer is very angry. An orchestra playing a sharp set of tones could be played to emphasize Helmer’s anger. The loudness and the intone of the notes played would really help the audience see Helmer’s anger. This is a good example of why music should be used in all plays. Just by shouting and making a grim on his face wouldn’t create a dramatic effect for the audience, but if that is combined with the music, there would be a much greater impact upon the audience.

Before Dr. Rank arrives, Nora is a cheerful and playful person ‘like a bird’, so a piccolo could play a set of quick, high notes to show her motion. Nora stay like this when Dr. Rank arrives, but the situation calms down when he tells her that he loves her. At that point, the quick music would stop, because Nora would have been confused. A violin could play something slow until Nora decides what to reply. This is a good point because the change is spontaneous. The music would go from quick and cheerful, to something very slow and rather depressing to compensate.

So far we have had either happy or depressing set of tones accompanying Nora’s character. When Nora reads Krogstad’s threatening mail, a violin could play something sharp but not so fast, in order to create a tense, threatening situation. This would make the whole episode more dramatic for the audience, because music would be showing that there is something tense occurring which maybe the character wouldn’t be able to perform. On her way to Christine, the music would stay the same, but as soon as she reached her the music would stop.

Music in the play shouldn’t constantly be played because the audience wouldn’t concentrate more on it and maybe miss some crucial points. Therefore, the director should be very careful in choosing the places for music and places to leave without any.

At the point where Torvald is busy reading mail and Nora is distracting him, the play could have silent background orchestra playing with a piccolo or a flute being emphasized at the points Nora moves around distracting him. Nora then tells him she’s nervous about the dance and asks for assistance. While dancing, Helmer gets extremely mad because Nora ignored his instructions. At this point, his action can be accompanied by a sudden start of an orchestra playing sharp, loud tones, which emphasize his extreme anger. Therefore the music would have to be going from softer up to a point where it is extremely loud, to show the peak of his anger.

This music would then slowly decrease in speed and loudness as he slowly looses his anger and starts calling his wife animal names such as in this case ‘where’s my little skylark’ and therefore a flute should be playing something soft, to show his passion and love towards Nora.

The intensity and the type of music are mostly important at the openings and closing of the acts. Just like an introduction and a conclusion of a paper, they serve to introduce and close an act. It is perfectly possible to use music in plays but it is up to the director to decide when and where he should place it. An emphasis should mostly be placed on the entrances and exits as well as on introduction of new characters, because the music would give the play a dramatic effect, which would help the audience understand the performance better. Drama is always creative. The author only writes a play, and many producers edit it in order to make it ‘better’ or more effective.

As a reader, if you take in consideration what music could be played when and using some imagination, reading a play in this manner would create more meaning to the overall play, and help the reader understand the true nature of the characters.