What is the function of music in Twelfth Night?

 If music be
the food of love, play on,

Give me excess of it that,
surfeiting,

The appetite may sicken and so
die.

That strain again, it had a dying
fall.

O, it came o’er my ear like the sweet
sound

That breathes upon a bank of
violets,

Stealing and giving odour. Enough, no
more,

‘Tis not so sweet now as it was before. (1.1
1-4)

The above
lines mark the opening of Twelfth Night, in which count Orsino of
Illyria laments his longing for Olivia. “If music be the food," then, Orsino would
rather eat in excess in order to die.  Thus, from the beginning, we see that music is
relevant because Orsino tries to cure his lovesickness by listening to it. It is
important to notice that we have here a case of synaesthesia, a trope that refers to the
mixing of sensations. In this case, one hears music one doesn’t eat it. This figure of
speech emphasizes Orsino's restlessness because of
love.

Music is also predominant in the character of Feste,
the clown who often sings songs about love in order to entertain others in the play, as
we can see in, act 2.3:

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O mistress mine, where are you
roaming?

O stay and hear, your true love’s
coming,

That can sing both high and
low.

Trip no further, pretty
sweeting.

Journeys end in lovers
meeting,

Every wise man’s son doth
now.

Conclusively, we may say
that music plays an important role in the play because it is often linked with
lovesickness, one of the main themes of the play.