Music - Sonny's Blues

In the Novel Sonny's Blues there was a key phrase that instantly grasped my attention. This key phrase said, "All I know about music is that not many people ever really hear it. And even then, on the rare occasions when some opens within, and the music enters, what we mainly hear, or hear corroborated, are personal, private, vanishing evocations"(Baldwin 409). Now as I read this the main reason it grasped my attention is because I love music and I really think that sometimes, people truly just listen to songs and think of them as nothing. Or when they do think about it it is never really meaningful. But as I read what was stated in Sonny's Blues I really did not know what evocations meant. So I looked it up on dictionary.com and come to find out it means an act or an instance of evoking; a calling forth. As I looked it up I could really come to terms with what the narrator was saying in this story. He was saying that when people listen to music they only really look deeper into the song when they hear a word that reminds them of what they are going through or they hear a phrase that their ex used to say to them or something that triggers passion, or hurt, or even joy. Sometimes as listeners we can become so immune to just listening to a song and letting it go right through our ears when in reality the writer is really trying to grasp our attention and show us that there is true meaning in the song and in the words that are in it. So that to me is what he meant when he said that phrase. I hope this helps and again next time you listen to a song or even a worship song; listen harder and really focus on the incredible lyrics that were written for us to hear and to experience along with the writer himself.