Music at the Margins of Sense
Challenging misconceptions of musical experience in deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing disabled musicians and listeners
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.
Jessica A. Holmes is Associate Professor of Musicology in the Department of Arts & Cultural Studies at the University of Copenhagen.
Reviews
“Music at the Margins of Sense deftly puts disability studies, deaf studies, sensory studies, and music studies in conversation to argue for musical ontological and otological pluralism. Holmes challenges us to expand how we think of musicianship and to consider questions of authority, expertise, and the role of sensory hierarchies. Ultimately, Holmes pushes us to expand our musicological (and beyond) sense of what deafness is, of what hearing is, and of what music is and can be. This book will be essential reading for disability studies, sensory studies, and music studies. I cannot think of another book that puts music, sensation, and disability in conversation in such a rich and rigorous way.”
- Michele Friedner, University of Chicago
“Jessica Holmes’ beautifully written book, Music at the Margins of Sense, centers experiences of music that are typically ignored and relegated to the margins. Holmes’ crucial and timely addition to the musicological literature celebrates a variety of sensory experiences and perspectives, bringing together literature from a variety of fields to showcase the underrepresented viewpoints of disabled knowers.”
- Anabel Maler, University of British Columbia
“Elegantly written and original in its thinking, Music at the Margins of Sense extends musical discourse on deafness in a number of exciting directions that will ultimately instigate new research and further the conversation. Holmes’ compelling framework of ‘expert listening’ subverts conventional institutional understandings of expertise to highlight disabled and deaf epistemologies. Music at the Margins of Sense will become crucial reading for students and scholars of sound, musicology, and ethnomusicology.”
- Katherine Meizel, Bowling Green State University