xi
ABSTRACT
Siprianus Septanto Adi Nugroho. The Relation of The Revival Meeting And The Jazz Performance Seen From Structural Analysis of The Verbal Music
in James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2013.
“Sonny’s Blues” written by James Baldwin is a work of fiction that features music as one main theme. This phenomenon of music in the work of literature is called verbal music. The feature of verbal music makes the reader also get the musical experience from a work of fiction. In “Sonny’s Blues” there are two verbal music described: the revival meeting and the jazz performance. The two, although parted, are considered to have important roles in the story. The way James Baldwin describes the two events is somehow similar, that may imply the relations between the two verbal music. The study tries to examine the relation and the significance of two verbal music, the revival meeting and the jazz performance.
The objective of the study is divided into three. First, the study tries to see how the two verbal music are described. Then, the structure of the verbal music is examined. After knowing the structure, the last objective is to see the significance of the verbal music by looking at the similarity and relationship between the two verbal music.
The study conducted is a library study. While the method used is the structural approach. The music of revival and jazz are placed in the different era of African American culture; therefore, some historical information is also featured.
xii yang memasukkan musik sebagai salah satu tema utamanya. Sedangkan fenomena musik dalam karya sastra dikenal sebagai musik verbal. Fitur musik verbal membuat pembaca juga mendapatkan pengalaman musik dari suatu karya sastra. Sedangkan dalam “Sonny’s Blues” ada dua musik verbal yang dideskripsikan: pertemuan rohani (revival meeting) dan pertunjukan jazz. Kedua musik verbal tersebut, meskipun terpisah, dianggap mempunyai peran yang penting dalam cerita. Studi ini mencoba meneliti hubungan dan pentingnya dua musik verbal, revival meeting dan pertunjukan jazz.
Tujuan penelitian dalam studi ini dibagi menjadi tiga. Yang pertama, studi ini mencoba melihat bagaimana kedua musik verbal dideskripsikan. Kemudian struktur kedua musik verbal diteliti. Setelah mengetahui struktur dari musik verbal, obyek terakhir yaitu mencari peran penting kedua musik verbal dengan melihat kesamaan dan hubungan antara kedua musik verbal.
Studi ini menggunakan studi kepustakaan. Sedangkan metode yang digunakan adalah pendekatan struktural. Karena revival meeting dan musik jazz menempati waktu yang berbeda dalam kultur Afrika-Amerika, maka sedikit informasi sejarah juga akan digunakan.
THE RELATION OF THE REVIVAL MEETING AND THE
JAZZ PERFORMANCE SEEN FROM THE STRUCTURAL
ANALYSIS OF THE VERBAL MUSIC IN JAMES BALDWIN’S
“SONNY’S BLUES”
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
SIPRIANUS SEPTANTO ADI NUGROHO
Students Number: 094214030
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
i
THE RELATION OF THE REVIVAL MEETING AND THE
JAZZ PERFORMANCE SEEN FROM THE STRUCTURAL
ANALYSIS OF THE VERBAL MUSIC IN JAMES BALDWIN’S
“SONNY’S BLUES”
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
SIPRIANUS SEPTANTO ADI NUGROHO
Students Number: 094214030
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
vi
"Ah, swing, well, we used to call it syncopation
—
then
they called it ragtime, then blues
—then jazz. Now, it’s
swing. White folks yo’all sho is a mess.”
–
Louis Armstrong
vii
viii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Lord of the Universe for providing me the love and energy, so I can use them to do various things, one of them is to finish this study.
My biggest gratitude goes to my parents and family, for their support so I can finish my study until the grade of university.
I also would like to thank my advisor, A. B. Sri Mulyani, Ph.D and my co-advisor, P. Sarwoto, S.S., M.A., Ph.D, for corrections and suggestions for this undergraduate thesis. As well as my academic advisors: Tatang Iskarna, S.S., M.Hum. and Elisa Dwi Wardani, S.S., M.Hum for the guidance during my years in university.
My appreciation goes to all my friends in English Letter Department, for the four years accompaniment as well as the partnership during my study and assignments.
Special thanks go to the guys in “Beauty and The Beast The Musical”, Ms. Linda and Ms. Dewi, for the support during my hard time; the fellows in Teater Kepik, for the incredible last show; my friends in UKM Tarung Derajat, keep fighting! And the last goes to my friends in Accounting 2009, my bandmates, and my friends in boarding house, thanks all for giving me a piece of story.
Greatest gratitude goes to Putri Ayu Rezkiyana, for the love, patience and understanding, as well as the accompaniment during the days of my study.
ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE ... i
APPROVAL PAGE ... ii
ACCEPTANCE PAGE ... iii
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PUBLIKASI ... iv
STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ... v
2. Review on Metaphor And Metoymy in Structural Analysis .... 10
C. Historical Background ... 12
A. The Description of Verbal Music in “Sonny’s Blues” ... 19
1. The Revival Meeting ... 19
2. The Jazz Performance ... 23
B. The Structural Analysis of The Verbal Music ... 29
1. The Horizontal Analysis of The Revival Meeting ... 29
2. The Vertical Analysis of The Revival Meeting ... 32
3. The Horizontal Analysis of The Jazz Performance ... 33
4. The Vertical Analysis of The Jazz Performance ... 35
x
1. The Structural Similarities ... 38
2. Historical Point of View ... 41
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ... 45
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 48
APPENDIX ... 50
xi
ABSTRACT
Siprianus Septanto Adi Nugroho. The Relation of The Revival Meeting And The Jazz Performance Seen From Structural Analysis of The Verbal Music
in James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2013.
“Sonny’s Blues” written by James Baldwin is a work of fiction that features music as one main theme. This phenomenon of music in the work of literature is called verbal music. The feature of verbal music makes the reader also get the musical experience from a work of fiction. In “Sonny’s Blues” there are two verbal music described: the revival meeting and the jazz performance. The two, although parted, are considered to have important roles in the story. The way James Baldwin describes the two events is somehow similar, that may imply the relations between the two verbal music. The study tries to examine the relation and the significance of two verbal music, the revival meeting and the jazz performance.
The objective of the study is divided into three. First, the study tries to see how the two verbal music are described. Then, the structure of the verbal music is examined. After knowing the structure, the last objective is to see the significance of the verbal music by looking at the similarity and relationship between the two verbal music.
The study conducted is a library study. While the method used is the structural approach. The music of revival and jazz are placed in the different era of African American culture; therefore, some historical information is also featured.
xii yang memasukkan musik sebagai salah satu tema utamanya. Sedangkan fenomena musik dalam karya sastra dikenal sebagai musik verbal. Fitur musik verbal membuat pembaca juga mendapatkan pengalaman musik dari suatu karya sastra. Sedangkan dalam “Sonny’s Blues” ada dua musik verbal yang dideskripsikan: pertemuan rohani (revival meeting) dan pertunjukan jazz. Kedua musik verbal tersebut, meskipun terpisah, dianggap mempunyai peran yang penting dalam cerita. Studi ini mencoba meneliti hubungan dan pentingnya dua musik verbal, revival meeting dan pertunjukan jazz.
Tujuan penelitian dalam studi ini dibagi menjadi tiga. Yang pertama, studi ini mencoba melihat bagaimana kedua musik verbal dideskripsikan. Kemudian struktur kedua musik verbal diteliti. Setelah mengetahui struktur dari musik verbal, obyek terakhir yaitu mencari peran penting kedua musik verbal dengan melihat kesamaan dan hubungan antara kedua musik verbal.
Studi ini menggunakan studi kepustakaan. Sedangkan metode yang digunakan adalah pendekatan struktural. Karena revival meeting dan musik jazz menempati waktu yang berbeda dalam kultur Afrika-Amerika, maka sedikit informasi sejarah juga akan digunakan.
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of The Study.
To achieve more aesthetic value, an author of fiction may consider involving other arts in his literary work. He or she uses the literary medium in order to describe another art form. However, not every object, especially other art form such as music, is easy to describe or to write in the form of verbal language. Only those skillful authors who are able to describe music in that form.
The two arts itself have different basic device to convey the meaning from the artist into the audience. „Music is conveyed from the musician to the listener in the form on sound waves‟ (Seashore, 1938: 29), while literature is conveyed from the author to the reader in the form of words. The two distinct media make only the evocation of music that is possible to write in the form of verbal language. This phenomenon is called verbal music.
Steven Paul Scher, a German musico-literary critic writes in Notes Toward a Theory of Verbal Music:
Scher suggests that verbal music is a literary phenomenon. He also states that there are many evocations of music in the form of verbal language. However, he notes that not every description of music in language is a literary phenomenon. Scher states:
By verbal music I mean any literary presentation (whether in poetry or prose) of existing or fictitious musical compositions: any poetic texture which has a piece of music as its „theme.‟ In addition to approximating in words an actual or fictitious score, such poems or passages often suggest characterization of a musical performance or of subjective response to music. Although verbal music may, on occasion, contain onomatopoeic effects, it distinctly differs from word music, which is exclusively an attempt at literary imitation of sound. (Scher, 1970: 149)
It can be drawn that verbal music is a representation of music in literature. It is a description of musical experience rather than imitation of musical sound in the form of language. Verbal music is the way an author describes music which is experienced by a character in the literary works so the reader of fiction can share the same musical experience with the character in the story.
The study analyzes verbal music contained in the short story written by James Baldwin, “Sonny‟s Blues”. The short story is chosen because the work employs music as its main themes. The story is about the struggle of a jazz musician named Sonny who has a conflict with the narrator, who is also his brother, in the early part of the story. Most of their conflict is caused by the narrator‟s failure to understand Sonny‟s passion toward music.
and the narrator watch the performance of the revival meeting separately. Being fascinated by the performance, the narrator accepts Sonny‟s invitation to come to the bar where Sonny plays jazz with his fellow musicians. Those two musical events have significant contributions to the whole story. “The finale brings our two themes of interpersonal communication and music together.” (Goldman, 1974: 232)
One interesting point is that the narrator experiences significant change after he watched the musical performance conducted by Sonny and friends. At the beginning of the story, the narrator is described to be ignorant and has a little understanding about Sonny‟s passion about music. However, in the later part of the story when the musical performance is conducted, the narrator seems to be a different person, he can finally understand and feel the music that is played. That point signifies that the music has an important role in the story.
By conducting the study above, the analysis examines how James Baldwin describes the two musical events, the underlying structure, and the motif or the significance behind the use of verbal music.
B. Problem Formulation
To conduct the structural study to reveal the significance of the verbal music in James Baldwin‟s “Sonny‟s Blues”, the problems are listed as follow:
1. How are the revival meeting and the jazz performance described in Baldwin‟s “Sonny‟s Blues”?
2. What is the structure of the verbal music of Baldwin‟s “Sonny‟s Blues”? 3. What is the relation between the revival meeting and the jazz performance
in Baldwin‟s “Sonny‟s Blues”?
C. Objective of The Study
5
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
The short story “Sonny’s Blues” is considered as African American literature since the author, James Baldwin, is an Afro-American writer. Commonly black literature covers themes of struggle and identity searching. One study from Elaine R. Ognibene, Black Literature Revisited: “Sonny’s Blues”, stated that “Sonny’s Blues” also contains such themes:
In it Baldwin deals with the question of prejudice and stereotypes; with an attempt to bridge a modern cliche-the generation gap; with an ascent from drugs to something more real and more lasting; and with a search for self-identity that is every man's (Ognibene, 1971: 36).
The study discusses the main themes of “Sonny’s Blues”. Ognibene analyzed every part of the story she found that many themes involved in it, especially those which are usually found in African American literature. She stated that the story deals with the struggle of the main characters from prejudice and stereotyping shown in his conflict with his brother, the conflict with himself seen through his addiction of drugs, and finally the self-identity discovering through music, jazz-blues, he plays.
A further study about jazz-blues music that help the main character find his self-identity was conducted by Richard Albert in his article titled The Jazz-Blues Motif in James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”. He stated that blues music is an art
The blues as music, as opposed to "the blues as such," take into account both form and content. In this story, content (message) is all important. As music, the blues are considered by many blacks to be a reflection of and a release from the suffering they endured through and since the days of slavery (Albert, 1984: 179).
The statement actually shows that blues is actually a meaningful music for the black people. It is not only meaningful individually, but also for the whole community. Through “Sonny‟s Blues”, he said, James Baldwin wants every reader to know how important the music is for the community.
The jazz-blues music can also become a symbol for the African-American people. An undergraduate thesis by Helena Fransisca Nababan titled The Representation of Jazz Music as The Symbol of Freedom and Dignity of The Black
Americans as Seen Through The Main Characters’ Development in James
Baldwin’s “Sonny‟s Blues” studies how jazz-blues music becomes a symbol of
freedom and dignity for the Black Americans. She uses psychological study to discover the development of the character and signify the changes of the main character‟s attitude.
The symbol of having freedom and dignity, mainly for musicians is actually grasped by Sonny‟s brother since the beginning of the performances. Although Sonny‟s brother is still confused with the meaning, but, at least, he may observe that it is the life expression of the Black Americans. It is his society that created the music, therefore, he feels that he must be accept it as he accepts himself. (Nababan, 2001: 76)
This study focus on the study of the relations between the revival meeting and the jazz performance of “Sonny‟s Blues” to reveal the significance and the motif of the verbal music. While most of the previous studies have great portions of concern on the jazz-blues performance, this study also analyzes the revival meeting which is also considered to have an important role in the story. This study analyzes the structure, relationship, and the similarities between those two musical events in the story. Hopefully, this study provides alternative point of view as well as complementing other studies
B. Review of Related Theories
To conduct the analysis of the relations of the revival meeting and the jazz performance in the story of “Sonny‟s Blues” by James Baldwin, some theories are required. The reviews of theories in this study consist of review on verbal music and review on metaphor and metonymy in structural analysis.
1. Review on Verbal Music
As described earlier, verbal of music is a representation of music in literature that describes musical experience rather than imitation of sound in the form of language. The theory of the verbal music is mainly taken from Steven Paul Scher‟s Notes Toward a Theory Of Verbal Music. According to Scher, there
between music and literature and the evocations of music in this scheme: (Scher, 1970:151)
MUSIC LITERATURE
evocation of music
absolute program vocal poetry or music music music prose
non-literary literary
program word musical structures verbal notes music and techniques music
The scheme above shows that the evocations of music placed in the middle of music and literature. The evocations of music is the verbal imaginative recreation of musical experience as Scher states:
In all literary evocations of music the poet supplements his ordinary source (i.e., poetic imagination) with direct musical experience and/or a score, or allows his imagination to be inspired by music; he thus assumes the role of transmitter, rendering (suggesting, de-scribing, or creating) music in words. (Scher, 1970: 152)
and therefore it does not include in the literary verbal evocations of music. As can be seen above, verbal music is placed in the literary verbal evocation of music.
According to Scher, there are two basic types of verbal music, re-presentation and re-presentation verbal music:
When the poet draws on direct musical experience and/or a knowledge of the score as his source we may speak of re-presentation of music in words: he proceeds to describe either a piece of music which he himself identifies or which is identifiable through inference. . . . Poetic imagination alone, inspired by music in general, serves as the source of the second type of verbal music; and it involves direct presentation of fictitious music in words: the poet creates "a 'verbal piece of music,' to which no composition corresponds." (Scher, 1970: 152-153)
From that statement, there can be re-presentation and presentation verbal music in a work of literature. The re-presentational verbal music occurred when the author uses a description of existing musical composition. While presentational verbal music occurred when no existing musical composition is used, or in other words the author creates a „verbal piece of music‟.
What makes verbal music different with other elements of literature, Scher stated that there is something called „retarding effect.‟
A definite retarding effect on the narrative movement in a given work emerges as a characteristic feature of prose passages of verbal music. In context the result of such retardation consists in the creation of a literally static moment which tends to arrest and suspend the narrative flow for the duration of the verbal evocation. This moment effects a temporary rest in the progressing, horizontal sequence of the narrated events. In fact, within the confines of the particular instance, the horizontal narrative sequence tends to slow down to a vertical standstill and assume spatial dimensions, suggesting a semblance of "literary" and "musical" space combined. (Scher, 1970: 155)
the music is temporarily stopped for the narrative of the verbal evocation. Thus, the retarding effect makes the author able to insert various elements in the verbal music including past and future events and also symbols. Scher also stated that the distinction of retarding effects of verbal music from the verbal description of other arts is that there is a progressive movement in retardation.
...the chief distinguishing trait might be that the created feeling of spatiality mingles simultaneously with a definite impression of progressive movement. Simultaneity, i.e., the momentary fusion of movement in "musical" space (horizontality) and standstill in narrative time (verticality), may be said to provide a linguistic framework which lends itself more readily to symbolic representation than the other constituents of narration capable of retardation. (Scher, 1970: 156)
The statement implying that verbal music works horizontally and vertically will be the basis of the structural analysis of the verbal music. The horizontal analysis features the progressive events of the verbal music and the vertical analysis features the verbal evocations of the verbal music.
2. Review on Metaphor and Metonymy in Structural Analysis
The theory on metaphor and metonymy is used in order to search the structural relations of units in the narrative. Concerning metaphor and metonymy in structural analysis, Roman Jakobson also had studied the elements earlier as stated by Robert Detweiler:
From the statement, it can be concluded that the metaphor and metonymy analysis can cover various kinds of linguistic component. The metaphoric relation of a unit is chosen based on the similarity and the metonymic relation of a unit is chosen based on the contiguity or the order of a unit. This is also stated in the study of metaphor and metonymy in Shmuel Yosef Agnon‟s A Guest for The Night by Naomi B. Sokoloff:
Roman Jakobson's now classic distinction between metaphor and metonymy defines two primary modes of linguistic thought: on the one hand relations of similarity and dissimilarity, and on the other relations of contiguity or, we might say, dependence and independence. Though they find their most condensed expression in the tropes metaphor and metonymy, these same principles govern phonemic, lexical, and phraseological levels of language, and they operate as well in larger segments of discourse. A piece of fiction or poetry, for example, may develop along lines of association by likeness or through links of sequence and consequence. (Sokoloff, 1984:97)
It is stated that the work of fiction is developed by association by likeness or by links of sequence and consequence. This principle is used in the analysis of each verbal music.
The analysis of metaphor and metonymy is also able to connect the different parts of a narrative, although those two parts seems disconnected. Therefore, the analysis of metaphor and metonymy suits this study that wants to search the relations of two parts of the story, the revival meeting and the jazz performance.
C. Review on Historical Background
Some historical information is also featured in this study. Those are the historical background of revival meeting and the jazz-blues music
3. Review on Revival Meeting
The revival meeting is a religious ceremony mainly based on Christianity. The job of the persons conducting the revival meeting is to spread the good news in the gospel.
The gospel tells us that Christ is the Son of God come into the world, to save man from sin and death, to transform the meaning of his life by revealing to him the love of God, and to make him a son of the Father, suffused totally by charity, living and acting under the domination of the Spirit. (Latourelle. 1972: 48-49)
Fromt the statement above, it can be seen that the purpose of revival meeting is mainly trying to invite people to the path of salvation by following Christ. The Christianity also aims to enlighten the people of the freedom achieved by various kind of struggle:
As I shall try to show below this is of fundamental importance with regard to the Christian understanding of, and sharing in, the present struggles to be human, that is, to achieve freedom from oppression, from physical degradation and from being overwhelmed in an environment seemingly out of control. (Jenkins, 1974: 34)
However, in African American society the practice of revival meeting is more specialized because they combined the ritual with their former African culture. The clear distinguishing is the feature of call-and-response pattern as stated:
American musical heritage. The call-and-response pattern of the spirituals, as well as their complex rhythmical structure, drew from roots in African and African American music. (Harvey, 2011:60)
The statement above shows that the revival meeting for African American can be considered to a more specific culture because it does not merely based on Christianity. As the result of the combination of the cultures, the ritual is somehow stronger, for example: “as in the revival meetings, some participants were overcome with the spirit and fell unsconscious.” (Perreti, 2009:29).
4. Review on Blues-Jazz Music
Jazz is widely known as a highly expressive style of music. Roger Kamien in his book, Music: An Appreciation, defined jazz as “music rooted in improvisation and characterized by syncopated rhythm, a steady beat, and distinctive tone colors and technique of performance.” (Kamien, 1988: 538)
The jazz music in African Americans also has a close relationship with another musical culture of African Americans as it may also have call-and-response pattern featured in the revival meeting and spiritual songs. “The call and
response pattern of jazz was derived more directly from black American church services in which the congregation vocally responds to the preacher‟s call”
(Kamien, 1988: 539)
While the blues is actually is the root of Jazz. The blues/jazz is considered to be created first time by the African American, as the result of the unification of American musical instruments with the influence of African music.
style of performance. The blues grew out of black folk music, such as work songs, spirituals, and the field hollers of slaves. (Kamien, 1988: 546)
While the spiritual songs mainly feature the theme of Christianity, the blues itself may cover various themes. The lyric of the blues can be about many aspects of life. It is said the most important thing about the blues is about the theme, but how the blues can make the musician feel better or can express their feeling.
Focused on love, sex, grueling work, and death, the lyrics of blues songs are direst and vivid yet at the same time complex—simple-seeming often, a blues lyric expresses sorrow, anguish or outright despair. But defiant, and unabashedly paradoxical. In the blues one can locate humiliation and prideful boasting, beaten down restraint and lusty exaggeration. One can even speak of some blues songs as happy/sad. The composer‟s (and the singer‟s) goal is to feel between, touched by joy and hope, by describing and working through wounded feelings and thereby gaining a measure of control over them. (Barnett, 2005: 535)
D. Theoretical Framework
15
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A. Object of The Study
The study uses the work of fiction written by James Baldwin titled “Sonny’s Blues”. The story was written in 1957 and originally appeared first time on the Partisan Review Vol.24 No.3, Summer 1957. Then, the story also reappeared in James Baldwin stories collection book, Going To Meet The Man originally published by Dial Press in 1965. The story has been made into short drama film in 2001 directed by Gregory Scott Williams Jr.
Meanwhile, the story that is used in this study is taken from Going To Meet The Man, published in May 1995 by Vintage Book International, New York. The
story can be found in page 101 to 141.
“Sonny’s Blues” is a first-person story that tells about a narrator who got his
brother, Sonny, jailed because of heroine usage. Then it is told that Sonny had a conflict with the narrator before Sonny is jailed. The conflict was mainly on the narrator’s failure to understand Sonny’s passion in jazz music, moreover their
parents already passed away so that the narrator, as the older brother, feel that he is responsible for Sonny’s life. After Sonny is out of jail he lives with the narrator, and from that point the relationship between this two brothers is getting better.
attention before. And when Sonny realizes this, he invites his brother to watch his performance playing jazz with his friends that night. The narrator accepts the invitation and goes to the nightclub with Sonny. And in that time, the narrator finally sees something in music that he did not understand before. Now he feels music and the message in it. And also he finally understands his brother better.
B. Approach of The Study
The study conducted here uses structural approach with a brief historical support. The structural approach itself based on the structuralism movement. According to Michael Lane, structuralism approach is:
a method whose primary intention is to permit the investigation beyond a pure description of what he perceives or experiences, in the direction of the quality of rationality which underlies the social phenomena in which he is concerned. (Lane. 1970: 31)
The structural approach, can be seen as an approach which focuses on an underlying structure that occurred in a social phenomena. Therefore the main aim of the study is trying to find the structure in a literary work. Jonathan Culler in Literary Theory also stated: “. . .the goal was to identify the underlying structures that make it possible. . . . structuralism sought to analyse structures that operate unconsciously (structures of language, of the psyche, of society). (Culler, 2000: 120)
According to Robert Detweiler, there are various methods in conducting the study using structural approach:
transformation, deep structure and surface structure, synchrony and diachrony, and metaphor and metonymy. (Detweiler. 1978: 17)
One of the key concepts mentioned by Detweiler as the method of analysis used in this study is metaphor and metonymy. The analysis on metaphor and metonymy is used to find the underlying structure of the verbal music in the story of “Sonny’s Blues”.
While, the historical approach is used in order to support the structural analysis. According to Michael Ryan in An Introduction To Criticism, “Historical information can explain a cultural text by providing meaning for events and characters that is not locatable within the text itself.” (Ryan, 2012:32). This study features revival meeting and blues-jazz as an archetypal culture. Therefore, historical support is needed.
C. Method of The Study
The study of verbal music in “Sonny’s Blues” conducted here is library research. The study used the work of Steven Paul Scher titled Notes Toward a Theory Of Verbal Music as the primary source of the research. Another theory and
history about the revival meeting in African American and blues-jazz music is also considered as important sources.
From this point the description of verbal music in the story become the main data of this research analysis.
19
CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
This chapter covers the analysis of the study. The analysis is divided into three main parts based on the formulated problems. The first part discusses the description of the music in the form of language or the verbal music in James Baldwin‟s “Sonny‟s Blues”. The second part discusses the structural analysis of
the verbal music. The last part covers the discussion of the significance and the motif behind the verbal music in “Sonny‟s Blues”.
A.The Description of Verbal Music in James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”
This part of analysis is divided into two major points, the description of the revival meeting and the jazz performance. The two have different cultural and functional backgrounds. It is obvious to sum up that the revival meeting refers to a religious activity, while the jazz performance is a musical performance where the audiences just enjoy the beauty of the music. However, Baldwin writes the verbal music of those two performances differently.
1. The Revival Meeting
again!” (p.130), and “God be with you till we meet again” (p.130). However, only
the performance of “The Old Ship of Zion” that is described while the two next songs become the background of another scene.
Baldwin placed the description of the revival meeting in the middle-end of the story, after he finishes describing Sonny‟s and the narrator‟s past: Sonny‟s problems with heroin, his arrest on a raid, the fights they had before, and also the description of their family in the past.
The revival meeting sets in the avenue across the narrator‟s house. It is conducted by three sisters dressed in black and a brother. They were surrounded by some people. There are also some people who watch the revival meeting from the distance. Baldwin describes some of these people especially the barbecue cook who watch from the doorway.
The barbecue cook, wearing dirty apron, his conked hair reddish and metallic in the pale sun, and a cigarette between his lips, stood in the doorway, watching them. (p.128)
To signify the presence of the revival meeting, Baldwin describes some other people stopping their activities to watch the revival meeting. This description shows that the revival meeting attracts the people attention.
Kids and older people paused in their errands and stood there, along with some older men and a couple of a very tough-looking women who watched everything that happened on the avenue, as though they owned it, or were owned by it. Well, they were watching this too. (p.128)
Then, Baldwin describes how the three sisters and the brother conduct the revival meeting.
tambourine outstrectched and a couple of people dropped coins into it. Then
the brother‟s testimony ended and the sister who had been taking up the
collection dumped the coins into her palm and transferred them to the pocket of her long black robe. Then she raised both hands, striking the tambourine against the air, and then against one hand, and she started to sing. And the two other sisters and the brother joined in. (p.128)
Although this is only a street revival meeting with few instruments, Baldwin describes how the performance conducted as a grand ritual. The purpose of the three sisters and the brother conducting the revival is to rescue people by proclaiming the Christian‟s path of salvation. They want the people listen to them and share the joy experiences achieved through music and singing rather than merely gaining their coins.
Baldwin makes a subjective description from the narrator‟s point of view
that actually this kind of performance is not a strange thing for the people. They had watched the street revival many times before. However, the narrator notices that the people still to be ignorant or not really listening to them. Even the narrator thinks that actually people do not really believe in the revival because they also knew that the sisters and the brother are ordinary people, they knew them and live like them.
Not a soul under the sound of their voices was hearing this song for the first time, not one of them had been rescued. Nor had they seen much in the way of rescue work being done around them. Neither did they especially believe in the holiness of the three sisters and the brother, they knew too much about them, knew where they lived, and how. (p.129).
As the singing filled the air the watching, listening faces, underwent a change, the eyes focusing on something within; the music seemed to soothe a poison out of them; and time seemed, nearly to fall away from the sullen, belligerent, battered faces, as though they were fleeing back to their first condition, while dreaming of their last. (p.129)
The statement shows that the music is able to release emotions. Even to some people, the performance has a special effect because the music evokes a remembrance of something depressing in the past. Some people just cannot stand this so they choose to leave.
The barbecue cook half shook his head and smiled, and dropped his cigarette and disappeared into his joint. A man fumbled in his pockets for a change and stood holding it in his hand impatiently, as though he had just remembered a pressing appointment further up the avenue. He looked furious. (p.129)
Just as some people leave the revival, the narrator finds his brother, Sonny, in the crowd. He stands still, enjoying the performance.
Then I saw Sonny, standing on the edge of the crowd. He was carrying a wide, flat notebook with a green cover, and it made him look, from where I standing, almost like a schoolboy. The coppery sun brought out the copper in his skin, he was very faintly smiling, standing very still. (p.129)
Afterwards, Baldwin ends his description of the revival meeting when Sonny drops some change and walks out from the crowd. He goes into the house and meets the narrator. However, the revival meeting is not yet over, Baldwin still makes it as the background of the next scene when the narrator has some talks with Sonny discussing the revival. Sonny notices that his brother is also fascinated by the music so he invites the narrator to come into his performance the following night. The narrator found himself unable to refuse the invitation: “I sensed, I don‟t
In the description of revival meeting, Baldwin seems emphasizing the importance of the music. How the revival successfully evokes people emotions by the singing and the music conducted by the brother and three sisters.
The other important point in the verbal music of revival meeting is the event in which the story shifts into the scene of Sonny and his brother having conversation while the music of the revival is still continuing that represent the special characteristic of the progressive movement in the verbal music.
2. The Jazz Performance
The jazz performance may be the most important scene in the story as it acquires the greatest portion in “Sonny‟s Blues”. In the jazz performance there are three sets of compositions that are played. Baldwin use re-representational verbal music as he chooses “Am I Blue”, a song written by Harry Akst and Grant Clarke made famous by Ethel Waters in 1929 (Albert, 1984: 183), as one compositions featured in the description of jazz performance.
The performance set in “the only nightclub on a short, dark street, downtown” (p.135) a setting that is very common in African American society
especially in Harlem. This setting creates a dark atmosphere that is described as “the lights were very dim in this room and we couldn‟t see.” (p.135).
musician in your family.” (p.136). Later it is told that Creole joins the
performance and he plays bass. Another musician also join them whom Baldwin does not mention the name. He is described as “a coal-black, cheerful-looking man, built close to the ground”. (p.136)
The narrator is introduced to many people in the bar. The bar itself is described as a familiar place for Sonny, he knows everyone in the bar and everyone there knows him.
And it turned out that everyone in the bar knew Sonny, or almost everyone; some were musicians, working there, or nearby, or not working, some were simply hangers-on, and some were there to hear Sonny play. (p.136)
When the performance is about to begin, Creole takes the narrator to sit on a table in the dark corner. From that point, the narrator observes his brother and other musicians gather below the bandstand (p.136). Baldwin then describes the musicians get into the bandstand one by one:
. . . the small, black man, moved into the light and crossed the bandstand and started fooling around with his drums. Then—being funny and being, also, extremely ceremonious—Creole took Sonny by the arm and led him to the piano . . . Creole then went to the bass fiddle and a lean, very bright-skinned brown man jumped on the bandstand and picked up his horn. (p.146)
There are four musicians on the bandstand playing different instruments: Creole on the bass, a black man on the drums, a bright brown man plays the horn, they play along with Sonny on the piano. Baldwin also describes the situation in the bar just before the performance is begun. Everyone is excited and it seems that they have waited for the moment.
waitress ran around, frantically getting in the last orders, guys and chicks got closer to each other, and the lights on the bandstand, on the quartet, turned to a kind of indigo. (p.137)
When the band starts to play, Baldwin shifts the description into the narrator‟s mind as he just realizes something to deal with music. He knows that music can evoke something emotional within a person. However, for musicians it is different. It is the job for the musicians to make people able to evoke their emotions besides dealing with their own emotions. Baldwin describes this as the „triumph‟. By playing the instrument, a musician tries to triumph, and then he tries
to share his triumph. Many people still do not realize this.
All I know about music is that not many people really hear it. And even then, on the rare occasions when something opens within, and the music enters, what we mainly hear, or hear corroborated, are personal; private, vanishing evocations. But the man who creates music is hearing something else, is dealing with the roar rising from the void and imposing order on it as it hits the air. What is evoked in him, then, is of another order, more terrible because it has no words, and triumphant, too, for the same reason. And his triumph, when he triumphs is ours. (p.137)
As Sonny and his fellows play, the narrator continues to observe them. When he sees Sonny, he notices that he is struggling at the same time he plays. “I just watched Sonny‟s face. His face was troubled, he was working hard.” (p.137). The narrator also feels that Sonny does not play with other players, yet he seems to play for himself. “. . . everyone on the bandstand was waiting for him, both waiting for him and pushing him along.” (p.137)
The narrator also notices that behind the bass, Creole plays special role among them. It is him that leads all of them.
body, wailing on the fiddle, with his eyes half closed, he was listening to everything, but he was listening to Sonny. (p.138)
In the next description, Baldwin elaborates the “dialogue” between Creole and Sonny. Creole wants Sonny to finish his struggle by letting all the past memories go, Creole knows how Sonny feels because Creole also has more or less the same experience in his past.
He wanted Sonny to leave the shoreline and strike out of deep water. He was Sonny‟s witness that deep water and drowning were not the same thing—he had been there, and he knew. And he wanted Sonny to know. He was waiting for Sonny to do the things on the keys which would let Creole know that Sonny was in the water. (p.138)
Then Sonny continues to struggle. He does not play a piano for over a year while he has a lot of troubles and jailed, so this is the time to recall the memories and get over it by playing music on his piano. Finally, the narrator notices that Sonny start to get on his triumph by the time of first set is going to end.
. . . the face I saw on Sonny I‟d never seen before. Everything had been burned out of it, and, at the same time, things usually hidden were being burned in, by the fire and fury of the battle which was occurring in him up there. Yet, watching Creole‟s face as they neared the end of the first set, I differently, now he emphasizes the beauty of their playing. If the first set focuses on Sonny‟s struggle, this time they described as a band. The difference is that now
drums talked back. Then the horn insisted, sweet and high, slightly detached perhaps, and Creole listened, commenting now and then, dry, and driving and calm and old. Then they all came together again, and Sonny was part of family again. I could tell this from his face. He seemed to have found, right there beneath his fingers, a damn brand-new piano. (p.139)
This beautiful playing is not the end of the performance. Next, Baldwin describes how the emotional effects evoked on the audience. It happens when “Creole stepped forward to remind them that what they were playing was the blues” (p.139), on this point Baldwin describes the significance of the music and
it is Creole who delivers the message to all of them. “He hit something in all of them, he hit something in me, myself, and the music tightened and deepened.” (p.139)
The message of the music is described “not about very new.”(p.139) Baldwin, through the description of the jazz performance, stated that everyone already knows the message but they do not really remember. In the performance, the job of musicians is to make everyone listen and remember it.
He and his boys up there were keeping it new, at the risk of ruin, destruction, madness, and death, in order to find new ways to make us listen. For, while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard. There isn‟t any other tale to tell, it‟s the only light we‟ve got in all this darkness. (p.139)
Again, Baldwin presents Creole as the one who „speak‟ to all the audience. While Creole plays the bass, he continues to communicate with the audience. He makes Sonny as the role model of the struggle and the triumph achieved trough music. The playing of “Am I Blue” speaks for that. Creole seems to speak to the audience that all their playing is “Sonny‟s Blues” or blues about Sonny. Creole
Sonny feels. Later, it is told that Creole let Sonny play for himself. “Creole wasn‟t trying any longer to put Sonny in the water. He was wishing him Godspeed”. (p.139)
The band continues playing the song, which is this time Sonny lead the song. “Then they all gathered around Sonny and Sonny played. Every now and
again one of them seemed to say, amen.” (p.140) The playing of this song also described as “very beautiful because it wasn‟t hurried and it was no longer a lament”. (p.140). As the song continues, the narrator starts to realize that it is freedom that is offered. “Freedom lurked around us and I understood, at last, that
he could help us to be free if we would listen, that he would never be free until we did”. (p.140)
And at last, the narrator also reaches his triumph. Baldwin describes how finally the narrator is affected emotionally by the music. All his significance past memories are evoked. When he experiences this, he finally can understand Sonny‟s life and his problems during the brothers had a fight before.
I saw my mother‟s face again, and felt, for the first time, how the stones of the road she had walked on must have bruised her feet. I saw moonlight road where my father‟s brother died. And it brought something else back to me, and carried me past it. I saw my little girl again and felt Isabel‟s tears again, and felt my own tears begin to rise. (p.140)
In the description of jazz performance, Baldwin emphasizes the struggle of the performer, that is Sonny, in order to express his experience in the music. He deals with his own emotion in the first playing and he triumph and share it to the audience in the playing of “Am I Blue”.
B. The Structural Analysis of Verbal Music
This chapter analyzes the verbal music horizontally and vertically as Scher suggests. The horizontal analysis features the progressing events in each verbal music and also the metonymic or the link of sequence and consequence, while the vertical analysis features the verbal evocations of the music described in the verbal music and also the metaphoric elements.
1. The Horizontal Analysis of the Revival Meeting
The verbal music of the revival meeting is described in fast plot. Baldwin tells the event, from the narrator‟s point of view, flowing from one action to the next, almost without commentary. That makes progressive events based on contiguity that operates horizontally dominates the verbal music of revival meeting, resulting in little retarding effects.
In the very first description, Baldwin puts an opening sequence that indicates the relation of spatial situation: “On the sidewalk across from me, near the entrance to a barbecue joint, some people were holding an old-fashioned revival meeting.” (p.128). The description implies that the narrator does not involve in the revival meeting as he only watches in the distance. He is considered not to be involved as the audience of the performance as he is not affected by the music emotionally as the other people do. However, he is considered as an observer as he observes how the revival progressed until the music evokes the emotions on the people.
The next sequence shows the relation of synecdoche (part to wholes) of “the people”, that is the barbecue cook, the kids, and some people that temporarily stop
their activity to watch the revival. The description of the audiences indicates the people‟s reaction and concern toward the revival meeting. From the description, it
can be seen that people is still interested in such old tradition. In the lexical level, words can give the special characteristic. The word “old-fashioned‟ explains that the revival meeting is actually an old, or ancient perhaps, ritual and it is described to be performed in the old ways also. It signifies that the ritual still carries the old values from their formers.
delivered by simple instruments. “All they had were their voices and their Bibles and a tambourine.” (p.128). These simple instruments which later carry the great
effect on people as stated in previous chapter. To be analyzed lexically, „voices‟ refers to the singing of the sisters and brother, it is their means to express the message of the revival. The „Bibles‟ refers to the act of testifying by the brother. Testifying bibles is the representation of the old tradition and values as it has been performed since the early years of Christianity. While the tambourine is the musical instruments that lead and keep the beat of the singing. The tambourine also had a special role to collect the coins from the people.
The next sequence after the description of the singing, there descibed a sequence that shows the relation of causality. Although Baldwin does not clearly described the cause, it can be seen that the music does effect to the audience. The effects of the music can be represented in the statement: “As the singing filled the
air the watching, listening faces underwent a change, the eyes focusing on something within.” (p.129). The statement clearly says that music evokes the
emotions of the people. “Listening faces underwent a change” is just a representation of the evoked emotions expressed through their mimic. “The eyes focused on something within” indicates that they no longer see what is in around them, but they see something emotional deep inside them.
of shaking head is the moment when the cook is sober from the music. Also in the
statement “A man fumbled in his pockets for a change and stood holding it in his
hand impatiently, as though he had just remembered a pressing appointment
further up the avenue. He looked furious.” (p.129) The word „impatient‟ and
„furious‟ show the mental condition of the man who has just realize something
and get the feeling of courage.
2. The Vertical Analysis of Verbal Music of the Revival Meeting
Although the metonymic organization dominates the verbal music of revival meeting, there are some metaphoric descriptions especially in the second paragraph that are stated by the narrator as the verbal evocations of the music. This verbal evocations show how what revival meeting means to the people.
The statement “the music seemed to soothe a poison out of them.” (p.129) is a metaphor of the effect of the music toward the audience. It can be seen that the statement get the meaning from different context, that is the context of medication. So the evocation says that the music has a healing effect for the audience. „The poison‟ may refer to the African-American experience in the past, and Baldwin describes this experience in the jazz performance.
The statements “. . .not one of them had been rescued“ and “Nor had they
seen much in the way of rescue work being done around them.” (p.129) show that
The statement from Mel Watkins below represents perfectly what Baldwin means in his description of revival meeting that African-American, the society in the story specifically, has different purpose in performing the revival meeting to the other Christian believers:
The goal of black preachers (in fact, of most religious interpreters) is to adapt mythic scripture to the mimetic needs of their congregations—making the tenets of Christianity relevant to the reality of the black experience. (Watkins, 1988: 122)
Although Christianity or the revival meeting does not originally belong to African-American, it is performed in African-American society in such a way that it suits the African-American experience. The performance of the revival meeting in African American society is not really to spread the gospel of the life of Jesus Christ or His “rescue work”, but it expresses the despair and the hope of freedom, their experience since the age of slavery.
The other metaphor found in the verbal music of the revival meeting is the statement “the tambourine turned into a collection plate again.” (p.129-130). The separate context can be seen as „tambourine‟ is a musical instrument, but also
some pieces of plate. Through the metaphor, the author wants to say that the musical instrument has a power if it is played, as described in the verbal music of the revival, how it can “heal” people.
3. The Horizontal Analysis of The Jazz Performance
of music. This chain of events makes the special order that represent the way of delivering the message of the music.
The first sequence shows the spatial relation that moves from the location of
the club, until the bandstand: “nightclub on a short, dark street, downtown.”, and
“entrance of the big room, where the bandstand”.(p.135), the location indicates
the poor and dark situation in Harlem. Strengthen by some statements like “the
lights were very dim in this room, and we couldn‟t see.” (p.135).
The next sequence shows the relation of synecdoche as Baldwin describes the people in the club: “some were musicians, working there, or nearby, or not working, some were simply hangers-on, and some were there to hear Sonny play (p.135). The musicians introduction is started from introducing Creole. The fact
that he is described as “enormous black man” (p.135) and “had a big voice”
(p.136) asserts his domination later in the performance where he plays bass. Another musician described is the drummer: “a coal-black, cheerful-looking man,
built close to the ground.” (p.136).
Another same relation seen in the descriptions of the people who watch the
performance. the statement like „some were there to hear Sonny play‟ indicates
that Sonny is well-known in the bar for his playing. This indication is also described in “A woman voice called Sonny‟s name.” (p.136)
The next sequence describes spatial relation, as Baldwin describes the
narrator‟s position: “a table in the dark corner.” (p.136) and the movements of the
musicians: “below the bandstand”, “moved into the light and crossed the
instruments udes in the performance that indicates relation of synecdoche (drums, piano, bass, and horn).
Then Baldwin puts the first playing set sequence. In this part there are two main descriptions: the role of Creole that is described and Sonny struggle to find the right tune. Creole is described as the leader of the performance as Baldwin states: “it was Creole who held them all back”, “keeping the beat with his whole
body”, and “he was listening to everything.” (p.138). While the part of Sonny is
described as “He and the piano stammered, started one way, got scared, stopped;
started another way, panicked, marked time, started again; then seemed to have found a direction, panicked again, got stuck.” (p.138), thus indicates that he is
struggling.
After the first playing set, the sequence goes into the playing of “Am I
Blue” in which the playing is described to be a contrast with the first playing. This
time the music described as “beautiful, calm, and old.” (p.139) and “it wasn‟t hurried and it was no longer a lament” (p.140).
The final sequence of the jazz performance shows the temporal relation as stated: “then it was over” (p.141) and “after a while I saw the girl put a Scotch and
milk on top of the piano for Sonny.” (p.141) this is a consequence of the narrator ask the girl to take the drinks to the bandstand
4. The Vertical Analysis of The Jazz Performance
retarding effects than the verbal music of the revival meeting. The verbal music of jazz performance also features a lot of metaphors compare to the revival meeting.
In the first playing set, there is statement “But the man who creates music is
hearing something else, is dealing with the roar rising from the void and imposing order on it as it hit the air” (p.137). The metaphor shows how the creative process
of the musician. The inspiration or the emotion is described as a „roar rising from the void‟ to show that it is wild and very strong. But the job for musician is to get
them under control so that it can be evoked through the music. That is why Baldwin also states “What is evoked in him, then, is of another order, more terrible. . . and triumphant too.” (p.137) Once the musician get the emotion under
their control, he can share it to the audience. When the audience felt the emotion, it can be said as a „triumph‟.
The second metaphor found is the „dialogue‟ of Creole and Sonny in the first playing set. The statement “He wanted Sonny to leave the shoreline and strike out for the deep water” (p.138) indicates that Creole encourages Sonny to overcome his past. The „deep water‟ means the strong emotions as the result of past experience and Creole wants Sonny to conquer it. To leave „shoreline‟ means
to have courage. Creole as the senior musician must have experience this. That is why “He was Sonny‟s witness that deep water and drowning were not the same
thing—he had been there, and he knew.” (p.138). Drowning means different things. It means to have no courage or helplessly cannot stand the emotions.
piano is just a piano. It‟s made out of so much wood and wires and little hammers
and big ones, and ivory.” (p.138). The statement shows that piano is an ordinary instrument made of ordinary things. Piano can be extraordinary if the musicians put everything on it while he play. “He has to fill it, this instrument, with the
breath of life, his own. He has to make it do what he wants it to do.” (p.138). Therefore, the narrator stated “I had never thought of how awful the relationship must be between the musician and his instrument.” (p.138). For musicians, the instrument is like a part of them so when the instrument is played, it comes alive and able to evoke their emotions.
In the end of first playing set, Baldwin put a metaphor of Sonny‟s struggle:
“Everything had been burned out of it, and at the same time, things usually hidden
were being burned in, by the fire and fury of the battle which was occuring up there.” (p.138). The different context can be seen as Sonny‟s past memories is burned. It may refer to how Sonny finally overcome his past memories, but it is not an easy job as Baldwin uses terms “fire and fury of the battle” to represent
Sonny‟s struggle. It shows the terrible process.
In the near end of second playing, Baldwin puts another metaphor: “ brand-new pianos certainly a gas.” (p.139). The terms „brand-new pianos‟ is used to represent the condition of Sonny in the playing of “Am I Blue” when he finishes his struggle and find the right tune. The term „gas‟ is used to represent that this
triumph is only temporary and quickly disappeared.
my brother‟s head like the very cup of trembling.” (p.140). The cup of trembling
represents the suffering of Jerusalem people. In the Bible, God promises that the people of Jerusalem will no longer drink from the cup of trembling and will give it to the people who oppress them. In the story, the cup of trembling may symbolize the freedom of African-American that is no longer oppressed by the whites.
C. The Relations of the Verbal Music
This chapter is divided into two parts. The first part containing the structural similarities found in the analysis of verbal music or the metaphoric organization in the story. The second part talks about the metonymic organization based on contiguity that shows sequence of the story. It also showsthe tangled roots from the historical point of view and the contribution of the verbal music toward the story.
1. The Structural Similarities
To the extent of the analysis of verbal music, there are some structural similarities found in both verbal music.
were maybe owned by it.” (p.128) and as well as in the jazz performance: “Some people at the bar shushed others. The waitress ran around frantically getting in the last orders, guys and chicks got closer to each other” (p.137). This excitement
indicates the importance of the performance to the people.
The second similarity is the testifying part. In the verbal music of revival meeting Baldwin writes “The brother was testifying and while he testified two of the sisters stood together, seeming to say, amen” (p.128). Baldwin also inserts a
statement in the jazz performance: “Then they all gathered around Sonny and Sonny played. Every now and again one of them seemed to say, amen.” (p.140). The statement implies an act of testifying. In his performance, Sonny testifies his life, his struggle, and his triumph in his playing, just like the brother who testifies the rescue work in the bible.
The numbers of performers in the two music performances, whether incidentally or not, also have the same number that is four. However, not every performer is described sufficiently as the importance laid in the leader whose role is dominant on the performance. The leader in both performances exists within the sister with tambourine and Creole. It is already described in the analysis of the verbal music how Creole leads the band, guide Sonny into his triumph, and delivers the message of the music. Similarly, the sister with tambourine leads the singing in the revival meeting as seen in “the woman with the tambourine, whose
singing dominated the air” (p.129). Another statement of their similar role can be
“it was Creole who held them all back. . . Up there, keeping the beat with his
whole body.” (p.138).
Another similarity is seen in the part which the music affects the audience or the triumph achieved. Although the evoked experience is subjective, the point of this experience or the triumph is similar in its relating to the past, the freedom, and the courage to face the world. It is described in the verbal music of the revival meeting how it leads them to the past: “time seemed, nearly, to fall away from the sullen, belligerent, battered faces, as though they were fleeing back to their first condition, while dreaming of their last” (p.129), how the freedom enters: “the
music seemed to soothe a poison out of them” (p.129), and how it gives them courage: “. . . impatiently, as though he had just remembered a pressing
appointment further up the avenue” (p.129). Those three also appears in the narrator‟s evoked experience through the jazz performance. The evoked past,
mainly tells about his family, is seen in the statement: “And he was giving it back, as everything must be given back . . . and it brought something else back to me”
(p.140). The freedom is stated clearly: “Freedom lurked around us . . . he could help us to be free if we would listen, that he would never be free until we did.” (p.140). The last statement of courage: “And I was yet aware that this was only a moment, that the world waited outside, as hungry as a tiger, and that trouble stretched above us.” (p.140).
