deaf and music
This post has two parts.
Part the First: wherein encounters with the public library lead to benefits beyond my wildest dreams.
I am attempting to renew our overdue relationship with the public library. (heh, heh.) The public library and I have a rocky relationship that is based on fines. When we moved to this house last fall we changed counties from the 'burbs to the city. About a month ago I finally got a library card for the Free Library of Philadelphia. This is what our public library is called, because Ben Franklin invented it and back then what made it distinctive was that it was free. (Except I can't remember if that meant Free, as in no charge, or free, as in anyone can use it, or something else, but "free" is the operative word) (Except in my case, where it should be called Fine Library of Philadelphia--in my defense, though, I'm not doing too badly. under $10 over the month.)
Since it is for the sake of the children that I subject myself to this torturous remembrance of immanent due dates, we've mostly emerged from our local branch carrying piles of kids books and DVDs. And they're really enjoying that. Did you know that Scholastic has recorded tons of books onto DVD? So that means that it's like Not-as-bad TV time, because they're sorting of reading a book, too. See, smart parenting right there. (/sarcastic)
But a few days ago I was browsing around the Free library website looking for something to put on hold for me, since browsing in a library with little ones in tow is basically a non-option. I came across their online databases.
I have access to Oxford Music Online--including Grove Music!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have been without any access, save for Google, these past years, and it is like coming across an oasis in the desert. I'm giddy, my step is a little lighter, and I can stand a little taller. I have Access. The hallowed gates to academic research are now open to, yea, even this Non-affiliated Mother of Toddlers.
Part the Second: wherein Access affords interesting discoveries.
The other big thing happening for me right now is that I'm applying to grad school again. Right now I'm in the throes of GRE prep. *groan* But soon I'll be writing essays and whatnot to get my applications together by December.
One of the things I've been doing in order to focus myself to write these eventual essays is articulate exactly which avenues of research I'm really interested. My main area is, of course, late medieval/early Ren. music history, and my main work will probably be done in that area. But there's a lot of interesting things happening in scholarship that can open up different kinds of questions.
The world of Deaf is now an inextricable part of my life, thanks to my son. Before Ellis was born, I didn't know anything about deafness or deaf people. Now, though sometimes it feels like deafness is this little insular minority, it also feels like I see it everywhere now. I never bumped into Deaf people before I had Ellis, now we do all the time. I say this a little jokingly, because I very well may have before, but because we weren't attuned to signing and deafness, we may never have know. Now, if we're signing or see someone else signing, it's a lot easier to make that connection.
I'm rambling a little, but I guess I'm asking the question, what if I put on the eyeglass of deaf and then looked at teh world of music history? how would I understand the music experience of deaf people? Where would that take me?
First, there's Beethoven. What did he have to say about being deaf? There's obviously the Heiligenstadt Testament.
...thus it has been during the past year which I spent in the country, commanded by my intelligent physician to spare my hearing as much as possible, in this almost meeting my natural disposition, although I sometimes ran counter to it yielding to my inclination for society, but what a humiliation when one stood beside me and heard a flute in the distance and I heard nothing, or someone heard the shepherd singing and again I heard nothing, such incidents brought me to the verge of despair, but little more and I would have put an end to my life - only art it was that withheld me, ah it seemed impossible to leave the world until I had produced all that I felt called upon me to produce...
I am sure there is stuff out there on Beethoven and deafness.
Then, there is also Deaf people who make music. I will certainly explore that.
But then, when I plugged deaf into Grove Music I found something I wasn't even looking for.
Contemporary German composer Helmut Oehring (b. 1961) was born the hearing child of deaf parents. His first language in the home was sign language. (I'm presuming German sign language.) He incorporates deafness and signing into his compositions.
Oehring's compositions derive from the complex physical and facial expressions of sign language, which he notates as music. His works outline bleak narratives that address the chasm between individuals and the futility of communication. His early compositions are concerned with stages of agony and human actions that lead to death; in later works, speech as a symbol of the impossibility of human discourse becomes the central musical subject. Much of his work can be considered social criticism. Several compositions include deaf people among the performers.
(Gisela Nauck. "Oehring, Helmut." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. 11 Aug. 2010
He uses deaf people signing as soloists in some of his works. Look at the instrumentation for a couple of his pieces:
* Wrong (Schaukeln-Essen-Saft) (B. Sellin, Oehring), deaf person, ob, b tpt/trbn, vn/va, elec gui, perc, live elec, 1993–5;
* Self-Liberator (Oehring, R. Taumel), 2 deaf people, tpt, ens, 1994
* ER.eine.She, 1v + b fl, 3 deaf soloists, vc, installations, elecs, 2002
I'm wondering, do the soloists themselves have to be deaf? or just sign? (I'm inclined to think the former.)
I tried to find a good YouTube clip. This is the best I could find, a sampler of his works. Skip ahead to 5'10" to find the piece with the deaf soloist.
I don't really know what she is saying. German Sign Language? and the highly stylized signing for the context? I find the staging to be really striking. Distinct contrasts between light and dark. Her face and hands stand out against the dark background, no doubt to ensure that they are clearly seen. Anyway, can you tell I'm totally fascinated by this? Guess I'll have to reacquaint myself with the German language again.
Comments
This is SO cool! And such an
This is SO cool! And such an interesting possible avenue of research.
So glad you're exploring and researching!
1. I have a similar problem
1. I have a similar problem with library fines. I justify it as my way of supporting the local library, which certainly puts the money to excellent use. There are many worse places to part with my cash.
2. As a college student, I was totally fascinated with the idea of musical perception by the deaf. I'm not sure why. I didn't have any particular connection to deafness beyond a childhood friend who was deaf (she read lips and, after years of speech therapy, spoke rather than signed) and another friend who was the hearing child of two deaf parents. I think it was partly because I was so sound-focused that I had trouble imagining not being able to hear. But also, I felt strongly that the musical impulse was something internal that wouldn't necessarily be absent in the absence of the ability to hear. Rhythm can be felt if not heard. I considered work on Evelyn Glennie at one point. I'm wondering if the new(ish) field of Medical Ethnomusicology might be a place to look for contact.
3. Those scholastic videos are absolutely incredible. Do a little reading on their instigator, Paul Gagne. Very interesting. And I think they played a large part in my son's reading at age 2. We would watch with the books in front of it and turn on the captions. We own about 15 of them and still watch them sometimes, even though AJ is long past the target age. The Maurice Sendak video is a particular favorite. Peter "P.D.Q. Bach" Schickele scores and narrates Where the Wild Things Are.
Harriet, yes, I was thinking
Harriet, yes, I was thinking that Ethno. has got to be helpful. I have basically no experience with Ethnomusicology, but one of the depts I'm applying to (my top choice actually) has a really good Ethno dept.
In my very favorite music
In my very favorite music video, "Music Instinct: Science and Song', which you can get from Netflix, even on the 'watch instantly ' option, it is mentioned that some cultures don't have two separate words for music and motion. It does graze across deaf and music as it grazes across many different aspects of how music affects people in more ways than we can really get a handle on all at one time. Watch the video! that's for anyone who is reading this!
Wow... this is big. I mean, I
Wow... this is big. I mean, I saw your twit about Grove and all and was all excited for you, but grad school? Wow... are you applying for a phd? Good luck. I don't know if I'd do it again, but us scholarly folk are stubborn and love what we do, don't we? Have fun!!! (is all I can say at this point). :-D
Very cool! As for the woman,
Very cool! As for the woman, I think she's hearing because she's wearing a microphone or some sort of earpiece...? She could be hard-of-hearing. I can ask my friend who knows German Sign Language to see if the woman is actually using German Sign Language for the music or using gestures/specific signs to express the feelings associated with the music. Does the music have words? If not, then it's definitely interpretative signing.
One of the largest misconceptions of Deaf people is that they cannot enjoy music. There are many Deaf and hard-of-hearing musicians/singers out there! There's even a Deaf band called "Beethoven's Nightmare"! =) D-PAN (Deaf Performing Artists Network) is a relatively new company that makes music videos incorporating music and signing. Check their music videos out. Show them to Ellis. Expose Ellis to music with Deaf people! =)
I saw the wire, too, that she
I saw the wire, too, that she was wearing. I wondered if it was some kind of click track or something, if she was moderately deaf she could hear something through a hearing aid type of situation. Or if it were in a frequency that she could hear. Or just vibrations. My thought was that it was something to help her keep time. My inclination is to think that if the composer designated a performer as deaf, then the performer is deaf. But I don't know for sure.
I remember seeing "Beethoven's Nightmare" in Through Deaf Eyes. :) I know that there are lots of Deaf performers. There was a big deaf arts fest in Philly a couple of years ago. I wanted to see some stuff, but we just couldn't at the time. I think M was a baby or something; and he cried a lot when he was a baby.
You might also enjoy the
You might also enjoy the music videos created by Signmark, for instance "Speakerbox". Good luck with your grad school applications!!
thanks for the suggestion.
thanks for the suggestion. I'll definitely check it out.
Hi! And good luck on with the
Hi! And good luck on with the grad school applications, and finding a place that suits you and your family. I just started my PhD program for musicology, and what a small, often weird, but in many ways uniquely suited to the right people, kind of world it is! We should correspond, because I just finished my master's thesis on music and deafness, looking at the ways that music and deafness have historically been used to define each other since the late 18th century (Beethoven being the most well-known case study for this). Music and deafness is a huge and fascinating subject, and with your experience in the Deaf community, I'm sure you would bring a lot to it if you were to pursue it. My introduction to the Deaf community was in 2003; I was primarily a composer at the time, and through working with a wonderful woman who helped me to compose a piece for saxophone quartet, ASL signer, and narrator, my life was changed forever. She is a founding member of an organization called Deaf Empowerment, and we had members of the Deaf community in the audience for each performance. The whole experience showed me that like you said deafness and music are not mutually exclusive, and it also made me want to really critically look at the way that the music community defines musicmaking, and who has a right to it, and what it means to "be musical." Anyway, if you send me a personal email, I'd be happy to send you my thesis and chat with you more about this! Thanks for putting up the info about Helmut Oehring; it's a little tricky to track down info about him, but he is a really interesting composer. There is a DVD (that I just ordered tonight in fact) where they feature Wrong and talk with him about how he put it together (at least, that's what the info I found said, but I haven't seen it.) The only place I could find to order it is through www.grooves-inc.com. Also, for more information on issues of music and deafness and other disabilities, there is a burgeoning subdiscipline in musicology that goes by the name "music and disability." There is one book of essays specifically about this that has come out so far, but more are in progress; the book is called "Sounding Off: Theorizing Disability in Music."
All the best!
Rock on! Devin, could you
Rock on! Devin, could you send me an email. I know you have to submit an email address to leave a comment. I'm not sure how to find that, though. *sheepish grin* I'm diber jones [at]gmail [dot] com (please take out the space between diber and jones--all one word).
I've noticed the music and disability sessions at AMS. I would love to read your work! How cool!! I'm primarily a medievalist, so this is a bit new for me. It's awesome to connect with you. I also plan to be at AMS, too...
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