Effective music composition approaches for the deaf are investigated. After a review of existing ... more Effective music composition approaches for the deaf are investigated. After a review of existing methods for deaf musical engagement, the reasons for music being popularly regarded as an auditory-centred experience are presented. These include a neuroscientific argument for issues around multisensory awareness, the influence of audio-centric language on musical experience and a new study which explores extending a subject?s vibrotactile awareness of music under clinical conditions. Three more studies and a series of workshops with deaf and hearing participants are presented which investigate multisensory compositional techniques for deaf and hearing audiences in both clinical and performance settings. Results demonstrate a number of successful approaches, which the researcher codifies as crossmodal harmonic technique. Moreover, it is shown that all individuals, whether hearing or deaf, can be alerted to the multimodal phenomena using these same techniques. It is concluded that music is a sense ensemble: a whole-body, crossmodal and intersubjective experience
Music composition for the deaf is considered with a view to broadening the understanding of compo... more Music composition for the deaf is considered with a view to broadening the understanding of composition in general by regarding musical perception as a whole-body experience, i.e., a 'sense ensemble' involving all the senses in its creation and appreciation. This line of inquiry is grounded on the following arguments, derived from embodied cognition and neuroscientific research: 1) music is fundamentally a whole-body, physical experience, 2) the senses work collaboratively in the perception of music (cross-modality) and 3) the cognitive apparatus for experiencing music is developed from infancy into adulthood through specifically human relationships (intersubjectivity/social cognition). A compositional study was devised to test a cross-modal harmonic and intersubjective approach to music through an interactive performance that involved no spoken or written language. Qualitative assessment of this cross-modal, intersubjective experience was to be drawn through feedback from p...
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Papers by George Higgs