What does music have to do with melodrama?
I can’t answer specifically about melodrama, but music in general enhances the experience in both live theater and movies. Music for melodrama, I would expect works like music for drama etc. it increases the emotional sense of what is going on, builds tension, signifies character roles and so on. Music can greatly change an audience’s reactions to a scene because it can imply things like who is the bad guy, who is the good guy, etc. Since melodrama depends on exaggeration, I would think the music for melodrama also is exaggerated. To give you an idea about how much music can influence the audience and give clues and cues regarding the scene and the characters in the scene, many years ago there was a television special on this subject. It talked about the influence of music, but was emphasizing the works of John Williams, who has won Oscars for his movie scores, and is well known as the person who wrote the music for the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies, and other very popular movies
