From the Land of Sky-blue waters they brought a captive maid

[Through composed]
From the Land of the Skyblue Water,
They brought a captive maid;
And her eyes they are lit with lightnings
Her heart is not afraid!

But I steal to her lodge at dawning,
I woo her with my flute;
She is sick for the Skyblue Water,
The captive maid is mute

A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1947 play written by American playwright Tennessee Williams which received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948.

Discuss the role of music and other sound effects in A Streetcar Named Desire.

In “A Streetcar Named Desire”, music and other sound effects play important roles as they are used to give a sense of setting, create mood and atmosphere, convey the emotions and feelings of characters, foreshadow events and also signify various connotations in this play such as insanity and guilt.

At the start of the play, it is the music that takes the audience right into the heart of New Orleans and sets the scene. “In this part of New Orleans you are practically always just around the corner, or a few doors down the street, from a tinny piano being played.” A tinny piano is a piano which has a metallic tone, probably in need of tuning, often found in bar rooms where Jazz is played. This tinny piano underlines the shabby, broken atmosphere of this part of New Orleans. It is also the use of the street sounds that alerts the audience of Stella’s living conditions. “Above the music of the ‘blue piano’ the voices of people on the street can be heard overlapping.” The color blue is associated with calmness, depression and relaxation. Similarly, the piano is a very slow and calming instrument. However, this calming sound contradicts with the chaotic voices of people overlapping. This contradiction created by the use of contrapuntal sound signifies mixed emotions which could be linked to Blanche’s character as she acts bipolar when she is first introduced in the play. Williams could’ve used this contradiction technique in order to engage with the audience and allows them to relate to Blanche as these different sounds make the audience feel mixed emotions. Therefore, in this scene, music isn’t just used to give a sense of setting but to engage with the audience as well.

Another role of music is to foreshadow significant events. At the end of scene 2, “the ‘blue piano’ and the hot trumpet sound louder”. This increase in volume could signify that something intense is about to happen in the next scene and therefore, it creates enigma. The next scene starts off with “for a moment there is absorbed silence as a hand is dealt.” There is a massive contrast in music between the end of Scene 2 and start of Scene 3 as it changed from the ‘blue piano’ and hot trumpet sounding louder to absorbed silence. This could be “the calm before the storm” and also reinforces the point that something bad is coming up in the play.

A style of music which appears a lot in the play is the Varsouviana polka music. It first happens early in the play when Blanche meets Stanley. He asks Blanche, “You were married once weren’t you.” Polka music sounds in the distance and only Blanche can hear this music playing because it plays in her head. This makes the reader think that the polka music is linked to something which plays a very important role in her life because as the play goes on, she hears it quite a few times. The topic of marriage is what triggers the song to play in her head first so perhaps it was playing when something significant happened between her and her husband.

We see this motif again during Blanche's conversation with Mitch about her late husband, Allen Grey. During this specific scene the music plays erratically and louder. This confirms the reader’s assumption that the polka music is linked with her husband. Polka music sounds, in a minor key with faint distance when Blanche tells Mitch about the night she found her husband cheating on her with a man and how she drove her husband to commit suicide by telling him he disgusts her. “We danced the Varsouviana! Suddenly, in the middle of the dance the boy I had married broke away from me and ran out of the casino. A few moments later -- a shot! [The polka stops abruptly. Blanche rises stiffly. Then, the polka resumes in a major key]” The fact that it plays in a “minor” key faint with “distance” suggests that these events took place quite a while ago as it isn’t so clear in her head. The music often comes back to haunt Blanche, particularly, because the only thing that stops the music from playing in her head and the memory of that night is the sound of her husband's gunshot as it occurred that night.

Music could also be used to convey the hidden emotions of characters that aren’t specifically mentioned in the play, but implied in different ways instead. In scene 2, whilst Blanche is taking a bath she sings “from the land of the sky blue water, they brought a captive maid.” This song was composed by Charles Wakefield and Nelle Richmond Eberhart in 1909 which gives the reader a sense of setting and time. But the main purpose of this song may be to illustrate Blanche’s emotions. It is fitting for Blanche to sing, as she is herself a “captive maid”/prisoner is the Kowalski apartment and it is the use of music in this scene which emphasizes her emotions and feelings. On the other hand, the lyrics of this song could be implying that she is perhaps trapped within herself, trapped within the memory of her husband committing suicide as the Varsouviana music often comes back to haunt Blanche, perhaps because she feels guilty and blames herself.
As the play progresses, Blanche slowly descends into madness and this is mainly shown through use of music and sound effects. “A distant revolver shot is heard. Blanche seems relieved.” The fact that a gunshot being heard in her head is what relieves her supports the previous point that she is trapped within the memory of her husband’s suicide. This obsession and being trapped in her mind can be associated with madness. However, hearing other types of music could also be relieving and make her drown out the Varsouviana music playing in her head. For example, during scene three, where Stanley is acting violent and brutal, Blanche turns on the radio to hear Rhumba music. Rhumba is a very joyful and energetic type of music which Blanche could’ve used to ignore Stanley’s violent actions as it might’ve reminded Blanche of her husband’s suicide.

Until scene eleven, the sound of Varsouviana polka music and the gunshot is always the same, only the volume of it changes. However, before Blanche is taken to a mental asylum, the polka music sounds different. “I shall die of eating and unwashed grape one day out on the ocean…soul to heaven. (The Varsouviana is filtered into weird distortion, accompanied by the cries and noises of the jungle.)” The fact that the music is accompanied by other disturbing sounds suggests that she has finally descended into madness. The “cries” could mean cries for help as it would be fitting for Blanche to ask for help before being taken away to a mental asylum. Or on the other hand, it could mean that Blanche does seek for mental help, which would make sense as she doesn’t resist too much and in fact, seems willing to go to a mental asylum as “the lurid reflections fade from the walls, the inhuman cries and noises die out and her own hoarse crying is calmed.” The crying and inhuman noises have subsided and thus, she has finally accepted her fate of going to a mental asylum. Moreover, the accompanied sounds could also signify that something unexpected may happen, such as being taken to a mental asylum when she thought she was going on a boat trip with a billionaire, as those sounds had never been heard before with Varsouviana music. Hence, in this scene music and other sound effects don’t just connote madness but again is used to foreshadow events.

In conclusion, music and other sound effects play a highly important role in this play as they help illustrate emotional content and also manipulate the feelings and sentiments of viewers.

Source: Hanzade

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