happy deaf people (Jagoda Szmytka)
Music is composed of varying sound waves that create vibrations on the human body. Usually we perceive music with the ears and this way of perception – through the ears – is called: h-ear-ing. But music comes in many different ways and it is important to learn to experience it not only with the ears but with the other senses as well. One of the most precious ways of perceiving music is touch. Through touch, musicians experience sound while playing the instruments, for example a cellist “embraces” the cello and feels directly through the body the vibration of the sound. Sound is experienced similarly by deaf members of the audience, who are provided with balloons which they hold in their fingertips in order to feel the music through their vibrations. A composer might try to enable perception of direct vibrations for the rest of the audience through strong amplification, or by working with an exaggeration of room resonances.
Perception through touch requires a real presence and directness – one needs to be in a concert hall, one needs to play the instrument. It is not possible to touch the sound through low quality headphones while listening to MP3 files online. That kind of hearing is beautiful too, but it is not about the touch. To touch the sound one has to be in the right place at the right time – one has to be present.
With the ear, we may listen to sounds in a direct or non-direct way – we may hear the sounds through a wall, through headphones, on skype. The ear goes beyond the necessity of physical presence or common experience. The ear can separate or link, connect, unite or create a break.
The traces designed as part of the score enable the journey through various models of sound experience and sound communication; the piece places musicians in a number of different situations, to articulate the question of the variety of music experience and communication (direct, partial, virtual, real, physical) – through the ear, the touch and the intellect.
Jagoda Szmytka
