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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
From the two distinguished types of verbal music suggested by Scher, the street revival meetings in
“Sonny‟s Blues” employ a re-presentational type. The revival meeting
in Baldwin‟s description mentions three existing songs used in a revival meeting:
“The Old Ship of Zion” p.129, “If I could hear my mother pray
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.
All they had were their voices and their Bibles and a tambourine. The brother was testifying and while he testified two of the sisters stood
together, seeming to say, amen, and the third sister walked around with the