Music is not just sounds. It is a heartbeat to be felt, a drone to be internalized. When life is smooth and everything is a pattern, music is forgotten. The constant radio playing fades into the background. The great pianists, the timeless reggae bands, the forever popular sounds of country twang somehow meld into the day. But what so many people forget is that music speaks to the soul. It has a way of reaching into the deepest parts of a heart. Sometimes hitting nerves and emotions that one did not even know he had. No one understands that more deeply than the man in his darkest hour. For music is the only thing that will listen and answer with out a scornful eye and harsh hand.
Sonny, the piano playing genius, found his hope and rescue in music. Just as Sonny "suffers from the limits that his circumstances have constrained him with," the music suffered along side him. Blues reached out its hand and took hold of the floundering boy locked in the clutch of drugs. Throughout the story of Sonny's Blues, the reader recognizes the healing powers associated with his piano playing fire.
Maybe, I should have some amazing metaphor or a suggestion of an analogy but I adore the way James Baldwin simply portrays music as a saving grace. It is a beautiful thing because only the man with a passion for the way an instrument plays under his fingers, will understand.
Beautifully written, Lex. I definitely agree, I loved the way Baldwin described music. He makes it seem so sentient and human, with the suffering and all.
ReplyDeleteI love your writing. It is true. Baldwin does use music to save Sonny, and without music, he really would not have a story unless he just wanted to write about the failed attempts of a drug addict trying but never succeeding to quit.
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