Music

• Introduction: The Flute

  Miller’s use of music also owes much to Expressionist theatre in that it helps to reveal Willy’s psychological state at different times in the play and highlights the conflicts within him.
• Music

  • Music is used to reveal Willy’s psychological state at different times in the play and highlights the conflicts within him.
  • E.g. the flute with which the play begins and ends is a reminder of what Willy has lost.
• The flute

  • Telling of “grass and trees and the horizon”, the music recalls a past rooted in America’s countryside - an environment which Willy loves but which is denied him in a New York neighbourhood which has been “massacred” by developers.
  • This means the play’s music can work on a symbolic level.
• Willy's father

  • The flute also recalls Willy’s father who made and sold flutes.
  • As such, the sound of the flute reminds audiences of the complicated legacy the father has bequeathed to the son: like his father, Willy sells in order to make his living. But, unlike his father, Willy does not create what he sells - he is not his ‘own man’ in the way his father is, something Ben is quick to remind him of: “With one gadget he made more in a week than a man like you could make in a lifetime”.
• Characters’ Themes

  Most characters in the play have their own music (or “themes”) associated with them.
• Willy's father's theme

  • Willy’s father is represented by a “high, rollicking tune” which represents how Willy imagines him - as the “wild-hearted” pioneer.
  • The boys’ tune is “gay and bright”, representing how Willy longs to see his sons.
• The boy's theme

  • Towards the end of Act Two, the “gay music” of the boys begins to play as Willy desperately asks Ben, “how do we get back to all the great times?”.
  • Here, the music reflects the longings within Willy.
• The Woman's theme

  • The Woman’s theme is “raw” and “sensuous”.
  • It is heard for the first time, accompanied by laughter, just as Linda tells Willy he is “the handsomest man in the world”.
  • Here, the music helps to reveal Willy’s feelings of guilt as he is unable to prevent the memory of his affair from surfacing.
• Knocking

  • Miller also uses the sound of “knocking” to intensify Willy’s feelings of dread and “terror” as he remembers Biff at the doorway of his hotel room in Boston.
• Ben's theme

  • Ben’s theme is described as “idyllic” at first, capturing how Willy sees him - as an ideal.
  • However, audiences learn to recognise the start-up of Ben’s theme as a warning, particularly as Ben’s advice leads Willy towards his death.
  • It is heard in Act One as Willy tells Charley of his tiredness, then again in Act Two as he is fired.
• Funeral march

  • It is heard for the final time immediately after Willy’s last clash with Biff, when Willy at last sees the love Biff has for him, but this time in “accents of dread”.
  • Ben’s theme now becomes a funeral march, leading Willy to his death.
• The End of the Play

  Miller uses music at the very end of Act Two to represent the final moments of Willy’s life which happen off-stage.
• Sound effects

  • As Willy's car speeds off, the noise of the engine is replaced by a “frenzy of sound”.
  • Miller describes how this “crashes down” before the soft pulse of a single cello string leads his family in a “dead march” into the final scene, the Requiem.
• The Requiem

  • Miller uses music in the Requiem to intensify the drama and the audience’s emotional reaction, helping to create a suitably sombre atmosphere for the Requiem.