The Vertical Analysis of Verbal Music of the Revival Meeting
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. The other metaphor is the description of the musical instruments, especially
the piano. In the verbal music of jazz performance , the narrator states “And a
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.
In the end of the story when Sonny drinks the bottle of Scotch and milk, Baldwin inserts an allusion to the Bible of Isaiah
51: “it glowed and shook above