Full Description
In Music at the Margins of Sense, Jessica A. Holmes contests prevailing misconceptions associated with deafness and hearing in Western music by turning to the musical experiences of deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing disabled musicians in order to impart a multisensory, multimodal conception of music and musicianship. Through a range of examples drawn from music history, popular music, recent film, and popular science, Holmes reveals that "deafness" is mistakenly understood as a state of total silence and heightened tactile sensation, a stigmatizing trope she calls the "figure of deafness."
Holmes explores music-making spanning auditory, visual-spatial, vibrotactile, and non-sonorous modalities, including the creative practice of Christine Sun Kim, all-deaf electronic dance music raves, the musical experiences of hearing aid users, and music and musical instruments devised to mitigate tinnitus and hyperacusis. By examining the cultural production of "natural" hearing in the design, branding, and musical programming of digital hearing aids, Holmes offers a reappraisal of hearing that defies naturalized perceptual processes and auditory thresholds, the idealization of sonic fidelity, and biologically driven conceptions of musicality. Music at the Margins of Sense champions an understanding of musicianship that embraces the lived experience of disability as a vital locus of musical creativity and expertise.
Contents
Table of Contents
List Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1: From the Figure of Deafness to Expert Listening
Chapter 2: Deafness qua Silence
Chapter 3: Deafness qua Vibration
Chapter 4: Hearing beyond a Natural Ear for Music
Chapter 5: Auditory Self-Regulation
Coda: Expert Listening as Musical World-Building
Bibliography
Endnotes
