Understanding Signed Music
Cripps & Lyonblum
signed language knowledge on the part of the performers. Performers without signed language knowledge will not perform music using their hands and movements sophisticatedly and abstractly like the performances by Janis E. Cripps and Pamela Witcher.
Visual music is not suitable for deafblind people. These people usually rely on their sense of touch to obtain information through their hands( i. e., tactile). They may use tactile signed language( or ASL) to communicate with either sighted or non-sighted peers( e. g., Collins & Petronio, 1998; Quinto-Pozos, 2002). It is likely that the deafblind population will enjoy the musical performances in the signed modality by touching performer’ s hands in order to follow the hand movements. This contradicts the characteristics and properties of visual music pieces as discussed above. Visual music is best described as inaccessible to deafblind people.
One deaf performer involved with visual music is Rosa Lee Timm, who performed Tell Your Story( https:// www. youtube. com / watch? v = yfZ8fVf6Ldc). She created this signed music performance that included some of the visual music properties. In this performance, Ms. Timm performed signed lyrics while underwater, with moving air bubbles surrounding her. The bubbles contributed to the visual effect. Along with Janis E. Cripps’ non-lyric work, Eyes( with its abstract water-like movements), there appears to be a recurring pattern of making references to water. While the perception of sound is dramatically reduced underwater, the performance can still be appreciated through visual means. Another interpretation might be the notion that water is a source of life.
Future Directions
With more awareness and understanding about the concept of music and how it applies to deaf people, it should no longer be necessary to search for appropriate terminology to define this phenomenon. Instead, scholars in various fields( signed language and literature, ethnomusicology, deaf-related studies, and the studies of cognition, aesthetics, and sound) need to move forward by conducting research with existing musical performances to explore the appreciation of the art of signed music. Specifically, using the field of aesthetics as an example, in-depth structural investigation between the distinction of ASL poetry and signed music performances using the performers’ use of hands, body and motions should be analyzed. Further investigation of the use of musical elements and motifs in signed music in both contemporary and historical forms is especially valuable for Music Studies.
There are some valuable videos demonstrating signed music available for further study. Cripps et al.( in press) suggested that the availability of these resources will allow a large number of signers to become more educated and conscious of what practices constitute signed music. With greater dissemination, these videos may impact scholars, performers, teachers, and students in their understanding of the characteristics or properties of signed music. In 2015, the Canadian Cultural Society for the Deaf( CCSD) presented an art exhibition on the topic of signed music in its Deaf Culture Center in Toronto, Ontario. Parts of this exhibition were included in a handbook called Signed Music: Rhythm of the Heart – Deaf Arts Handbook Series Volume II, which is available online. 6 Also, CCSD produced a 20-minute documentary called Signed Music: Rhythm of the Heart. 7
gestural modality that do not rely on an audible source. Further research must be conducted to explain this in greater detail. 6 http:// www. deafculturecentre. ca / Public / Page / Files / 642 _ DeafArtsHandbook _ Volume2 _ FINAL2015-1. pdf 7 To view“ Signed Music: Rhythm of the Heart”: https:// www. youtube. com / watch? v = FLazgI _ phNQ
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