LISTENING
WITHOUT YOUR EARS
MEGHAN KHARSYNRAP
People don ' t really question if what they see or hear is just one version of the world . People forget that physical , social or economical differences can change our perspective of what the world is . The world today caters to the majority . It is evident in our transportation systems , in our books , our education systems and so on . Sometimes an attempt is made to bridge the gap to help someone with a disability function in the world — to help those with disabilities go independently to the doctor , to go to meetings , to collaborate with other professionals and even to work . They are very much capable they just don ' t have the means to do it .
This is probably why you may find it puzzling when I say that a deaf person can enjoy music .
Their form of listening is different and much more intimate- they use their sense of touch and their bodies to feel the buzz of the bass or percussion . Our bodies can differentiate between buzzing but one who has been accustomed to touch has a more intense experience of the same .
One must note however , that there are varying degrees of being deaf and hence listening to music could be an absolutely unique experience . Some people may heighten their listening with cochlear implants , some have to turn off their hearing aids off because the loud noise may ruin it and some have hearing problems in only one ear , some people hold balloons when the music is playing to intensify the experience .
In fact , February 1st , 1924 , the New York Symphony Orchestra played Beethoven ’ s Ninth Symphony at Carnegie Hall . It was broadcast on radio . That evening one of the listeners who tuned in was Helen Keller . Helen discovered that she could place her hand on the speaker and feel the different sounds as the music played . She was enthralled and wrote to the orchestra describing what she experienced as “ A glorious hour ”.
Some deaf people even make music with more recent cases than the classic case of Beethoven . Evelyn Glennie , a percussionist from Edinburgh ( Scotland ) rose to stardom in the 1980 ' s . Upon losing her hearing when she was 12 she enrolled herself to percussion classes . Glennie today plays many instruments and is delightful on the marimba . She was the reason music institutes changed their criteria for acceptance in the UK . When she applied for the Royal Academy of Music she was rejected initially for her disability . On her insistence and after deliberation they gave her a second audition which changed the way industries look at music as an industry . In her Ted Talk Glennie says " My aim really is to teach the world to listen ." She wanted to explain that one should listen to their body and listen to sounds in a far broader sense then just by the ear . Glennie won the Polar music prize for her contributions to music .
There are also organisations like D-PAN and Deaf Zone that are trying to make music note accessible for the deaf . D-PAN ( The Deaf Performing Art Network ) is a not for profit that tries to make music and music culture accessible for the deaf . They recreate videos of famous songs with deaf or hard of hearing actors who use American sign language in the video . They also want to move outside of live performances and advocate subtitles for official DVDs and Broadcast for a deaf person ' s reference .
During some performances sign language interpreters like Amber Galloway Gallego are specially placed so they can sign the song lyrics live to a deaf audience . She manages to do this with style even with rap music .
However it takes several months to hire an interpreter for concerts . Even with all the development , Musicians don ' t acknowledge the people who quite literally want to listen with their heart .
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