"Music is an outburst of the soul."
~Frederick Delius
As you might have noticed, I love music. Which may be considered strange knowing I'm Hard of Hearing and Deaf cultured.
However I have something truly shocking to tell you.
Many Deaf people love music too.
It's true! Now right off let me say- "many" does not mean "all". But "many" does in my opinion indicate a majority.
Why? How?
Well as we learn about hearing loss, we find that most deaf people (even culturally Deaf people) do have some level of hearing left. Or they were hearing or hard of hearing before becoming totally deaf.
Even some stone deaf people like music. The beat, the feeling of a bass.
"Music is the literature of the heart; it commences where speech ends."
~Alphonse de Lamartine
Music, much like poetry, has the ability to convey one's deepest feelings. Music is often called "the language of the heart". It has the ability to change our moods and even our actions. So why would hearing loss change that?
With any type of hearing loss, the sounds one hears is vastly different. Even people with similar losses can "hear" differently based on the way the brain has assimilated and interpreted the sounds.
When loss is from birth or close to, a person with hearing loss truly believes what they hear is "normal". They never missed out, their hearing has always been what it was. It IS normal.
For someone with a later loss, they remember songs they used to listen to.
For stone deaf individuals, the sense of vibrations is most of the time heightened a great deal. A bass drum can be very fun to "listen to" (feel).
With songs and deafness, trying to create artistic translations and interpretations of music is exciting. It's not an easy task, but it's similar to creating a new poem or a new skit. First we ask ourselves, "What is the basic meaning of the entire song?" "What message is being conveyed?"
Then we consider ASL structure (assuming you're doing an ASL interpretation vs. SEE or other). Since ASL has its own syntax and word order, we must carefully rearrange words from English to ASL.
Idioms are especially tricky. Again we rely on the general meaning of the idiom to guide us.
Lastly we work hard to incorporate ASL poetic signs. After all, just like in English, there are everyday words you just would not find in a song. The same is true in ASL. Some words should never be in translations for songs. And ASL has so many beautiful poetic signs! Hearing people play-on rhythms and rhymes. ASL plays-on visual cues, ABCs, and handshapes. As long as it makes sense conceptually and is clear to the message, poetic signs can and should be incorporated into ASL music.
"Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."
~Berthold Auerbach
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