Understanding Signed Music
Cripps & Lyonblum
Video 2: Eyes
https://youtu.be/BjTX0X5zGVs
The distinction between lyrics and non-lyrics can be identified with the two signed music
clips under consideration here. An Experiment Clip has incorporated the wordings of ASL, which
suggests a direct relationship between language and music for deaf people. Witcher’s piece entails
the use of language that is similar to what is generally known as “[t]he words of a song in a
‘musical’ or of a popular 20 th -century song” (Kennedy, Kennedy, & Rutherford-Johnson, 2012, p.
513). Signed words in sentences are included in ASL phrases such as “it is nice to meet you.” In
contrast, Eyes is non-lyric with J. E. Cripps’ avoidance of signs representing specific words. She
performed using hand and facial movements in an abstract way. J. E. Cripps successfully produced
what is visually perceived as music from beginning to end. Such outcome includes the use of
signed notes, which is proposed as analogous to the audible musical notes.
Some Clarifications
While signed music has been the term used throughout this paper, another term to identify
music performances by deaf people also exists. In both literature and in the labeling of published
signed mu sic pieces, deaf music is a widely used term. Loeffler (2014) and Leigh et al. (2016) used
the term “deaf music” to represent the art of deaf performers who perform auditory-centric music,
which does not characterize the definition of signed music as presented in this paper. In both
Loeffler’s article and Leigh et al.’s book, the understanding of what music really means to deaf
people appears to be limited. Of particular concern is how deaf musicians listed in Leigh et al. are
influenced by the auditory tradition of music as follows:
The Wild Zappers, founded in 1989, combines ASL, music, and dance to promote
cultural and educational awareness of sign[ed] language and [d]eaf people. There
are deaf jazz singers (Mandy Harvey), deaf bands (Beethoven’s Nightmare), opera
singers (Janine Roebuck), and solo percussionists (Dame Evelyn Glennie)
(Lammle, 2010). There are also deaf rappers and groups, such as Prinz-D, Warren
“Wawa” Snipe, DJ Supalee, Sho’Roc, Signmark, and Sean Forbes (Peisner, 2013)
(as cited in Leigh et al., 2016, p. 249).
A large number of hearing performers have attempted to translate various English music
pieces into ASL with the naive thought that deaf people would enjoy these performances. Similar
performances have been made by deaf people themselves, unfortunately. J. H. Cripps, Rosenblum,
and Small (2016) explained that some deaf performers were prone to the paradigm of music as an
SASLJ, Vol. 1, No. 1 – Summer/Fall 2017
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