Music is an art form that appeals to the aural sense [hearing], in the same way that painting, sculpture, photography, writing, et al, appeal to the visual sense [seeing]. Listening to music, for me, is an “either/ or” proposition. If I can hear it, I will listen to it, if I can’t, I won’t bother.
The remnants of my upbringing, dictate that, if I can’t have it exactly the way I want it, then I don’t want it at all. It’s hardline I know, but I have yet to see the value of experiencing music as a series of vibrations, through my hands, my body, or coming off the dance floor.
My view and experiences of music, are tied to my “hearing” upbringing, and even tho, I have moved on from the medical/ disability model of deafness, I have never been able to shake off the perception of music as an “either/ or” proposition I mentioned earlier. I experienced music exclusively as a sound experience. Even though, I sign sing, and I love the art of sing singing, I can’t imagine it working or me, without the actual sound driving the hand shapes and signing.
My appreciation of music is determined by what I can hear at any given moment, and things like acoustics, even health issues such as sinus, have a strong influence on any pleasure I may derive from listening or dancing to music, and sign singing. I can replay, and revisit, favourite songs inside my head, and sign sing along to the memory, but I just can’t conceive of music without sound.
Like all the other senses – sight, touch, feel, smell, sound has its own intrinsic qualities that dictate that its best experienced in its intended form: aural [auditory]. Though I’m sure Evelyn Glennie, and Beethoven’s Nightmare would beg to prove me wrong. This does not mean that music [and indeed any of the other arts] cannot be experienced in other ways. Nor does it mean that we can’t explore alternative or different ways of experiencing the form.They can, and many people have gone out of their way to prove this. It just means that essence of the aesthetics and pleasure they [music] impart, lies in the experience of that [its] particular form.
The fact remains though, a Deaf person experiencing music, a deaf person experiencing music, and a hearing person experiencing music, are different sets of experiences, based on different physical characteristics [aural reception and perception]. Which are further influenced by the physical characteristics of location, environment, and acoustics.
Beethoven is held up as an example of someone who wrote music, and continued to do so, after he lost his hearing. But therein lies on oft ignored point. Apart from the fact that music was recorded via the written form of scores, and that each musical notation was a visual representation of a sound and how it is to be played, Beethoven was able to utilise his knowledge and understanding of the language of music [in its written form]. More pertinently, he was able to utilise his memory of sounds Beethoven had a lifetime of experience of music and sounds upon which he could draw from memory, as he continued to write music.
So, how does a Deaf or deaf person create or appreciate music, if its form and its qualities, are not, or not always open to us?
Further Reading:
Being Deaf and the Essence of Music
The Crossroads
Evelyn Glennie
Beethoven’s Nightmare
