Sermons, prayers, and songs

Something that really struck me in the readings this week was how the sermons and prayers were similar to the songs that we have read. You can almost hear some of these prayers being put to music. In "The Eagle Stirreth Her Nest", Franklin tries to describe how the sermon becomes a chant or a song. This is really neat to me because it seems more interesting to read and has to be more fun to listen to.
I also really enjoyed the Johnson's description of the "big meeting" in the Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. He really emphasized the importance of combining music with the sermons. This led to a theatrical effect that seems really enjoyable. In fact, Johnson almost seems to think that the music was more important than the sermon because the music could be used to drive points home. It seemed to keep the crowd active and helped them to be more interested in what the preachers were saying. Johnson also describes how this sort of church experience had a huge impact on a large portion of the black population of the south. Johnson makes a point of saying that this stuff is one of the things that helped blacks to survive and escape slavery. He does this even while making the point that some of the black population really looked down on these things. The whole scene seemed very interesting to me.