Aural Diversity
by John J. Drever and Andrew Hugill, editors (Music 780.87 Aur)
This book addresses a somewhat
scary issue for most musicians: aural diversity. On the surface, this is a
topic that reflects on the notion of hearing as something that can be a
spectrum of experience among different people, similar to how different folks
sometimes perceive sights and tastes differently. In practice, though, aural
diversity is speaking to differences in hearing that may arise from hearing
impairments of various kinds. For many popular musicians, the brutal volume
levels at most modern concerts can take a serious toll over the years, causing
tinnitus and high-frequency hearing loss for many artists. Danny Elfman, Sting,
Ozzy Osbourne, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Pete Townsend, Roger Daltrey, Grimes,
and Neil Young are just a few examples of well-known artists who suffer from
this kind of hearing loss.
For other artists, hearing loss or
hearing differences can come from other sources: some are deaf from birth or
young age, like Evelyn Glennie or Mandy Harvey, or have issues with one ear,
like Brian Wilson or Paul Stanley. Sometimes brain tumors can affect hearing,
as happened to guitarist David Torn in one ear. Some develop conditions that
aren’t well understood, such as Meniere’s disease that has affected Ayumi
Hamasaki and Huey Lewis. Others can lose hearing from accidents, ototoxic
medications, various hereditary conditions, or simply the process of aging. And
tinnitus and hearing loss seem to be a fairly common symptom for those who have
had COVID-19 as well, making this a timely topic. Having learned myself in recent
years how to live with another of the mysterious ailments that cause hearing
damage, Semicircular Canal Dehiscence Syndrome, I can vouch that one can’t
always predict what will happen in life, no matter how careful you are with
your hearing. And I can vouch that the passion for music remains the same.
The new book Aural Diversity, edited by John. L. Drever and
Andrew Hugill, is a collection of essays that address a wide range of issues
relevant to hearing the world differently, and how various composers and
musicians have developed their own unique ways to engage with sound and music
when their hearing behaves differently than the norm. Contributors include
musicians and composers with various hearing impairments, and researchers in
audiology and acoustics, some of whom have hearing differences themselves. The
topics addressed are generally divided into two main parts in the book,
“Acoustic Environments and Soundscape” and “Music and Musicology.”
The book features two
introductions: the first is a general layperson discussion of the notion of
“aural diversity” written by the editors, who propose a rough definition of the
concept and why we should care about it. If you’re a musician, consider this
sobering statistic laid out in this section: musicians are almost four times
more likely than non-musicians to develop hearing impairments. It’s probably a
good idea for musicians to have some familiarity with the research happening in
this field. The second introduction is a “clinical perspective” ‘from Dr. David
Baguley, the recently deceased head of the Clinical Hearing Sciences team at the
University of Nottingham. His observations about hearing remind me of
discussions around vision, in that 20/20 eyesight is considered “normal” and
deviations from it are overwhelmingly discussed in terms of limitations: vision
that’s less clear, a narrower field of vision, color blindness, etc. The field
of audiology is similar, where “normal” hearing is measured as 20 Hz to 20 kHz,
and the negative terms of “hearing loss” or “impairment” describe deviations
from that norm. Too bad we so rarely hear of super-vision or super-hearing
(although some issues with a form of highly sensitive hearing, hyperacusis,
also appear in the book).
In Part I of the book, the
collected essays focus on what an average reader will consider “soundscapes,”
or various environments and the sounds associated with those environments. Some
of these environments are surprising: the first essay, for example, addresses
the development of hearing in the womb, and the unique sound environment we all
experience before birth. Researchers even created a “Sonic Womb Orrb” to
emulate the fetal auditory environment, noting that for some time before birth,
hearing is our dominant source of sensory input, since there isn’t much yet to
see. Other soundscape-oriented articles are relatively more conventional,
assessing the impacts of noise-generating devices found in our everyday lives,
such as hand dryers and vacuum cleaners, and looking at accessibility issues
related to hearing differences. Other essays are more experiential, letting
readers know a little about what life is like with a cochlear implant,
deafness, deafblindness, unique hearing sensitivities often found in autistic
populations, or extreme tinnitus. The final essay in Part I, “Textual Hearing
Aids: How Reading About Sound Can
Modify Sonic Experience,” feels like a good transition into the music-focused
research of Part II, in that the processes described here can apply to general
environmental sound as well as music.
Part II, “Music and Musicology,”
could be considered essential reading for
musicians, regardless of their current hearing health. The essays here provide
lots of useful information for musicians and composers about the range of
experiences listeners and musicians can have because of differences in hearing.
After a sort of introductory essay, “The Show Must Go On,” which lays out the
various effects that aging, exposure to high-volume sound, cognition and
musicianship can have on hearing in practical terms, we get to some real-world
discussions of listening and performing experiences with music from a diverse
range of participants with hearing differences. This is followed by a study of
musicians with Meniere’s Disease, which typically causes a cluster of symptoms
that include low-frequency hearing loss (other forms of sound-induced hearing
loss typically affect high frequencies), and this often results in diplacusis,
or misperception of pitches, especially in lower ranges. This of course leads
to difficulties with both listening to and playing music. Cognitive impairments
related to dementia also have frequent correlation to hearing difficulties,
which is covered in another essay.
Then we get to some concepts for
inclusion of folks with different hearing abilities. “Do You Hear What I Hear?”
introduces the idea of real-time manipulation of sound sources to accommodate
individual listeners through unique headphone mixes (something that can also be
manipulated via apps for those with modern hearing aids). Several essays
discuss multimodal stage presentation ideas, including features like sign
language, vibrating floors, “tinnitus relief stations,” and multimedia art that
evokes sonic concepts visually. Several composers and musicians who have
various differences in hearing also offer essays describing their own methods
for composing, practicing and listening.
Knowing that musicians are already
more likely to have hearing difficulties than the general public, and guessing
that musicians vastly under-report such problems due to fear of damaging their
careers, there is a potentially wide audience for this book. Besides attempting
to make live music experiences as inclusive as possible, there are lots of
ideas in here for protecting your own hearing, and adaptations to keep yourself
active in music if hearing issues should develop. I hope to see more research
in this field, but this is a great starting point for learning about where we
are now.
(If you enjoy this, you may also
wish to try Music for Children With Hearing Loss by Lyn E.
Schraer-Joiner or Hearing-Feeling-Playing by Shirley Salmon, editor.)
( official auraldiversity.org
web site ) | ( publisher’s official Aural Diversity sales page )
Recommended
by Scott S.
Polley Music Library
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