Deaf World as Eye See It

Amy Cohen Efron shares her opinion about the rising popularity of “ASL Music” throughout the blog/vlogosphere.

“ASL Music” is considered as an oxymoron itself! Ain’t that funny?

I have been watching several people using ASL to translate lyrical songs sung by famous singers or lyrics from well known songs. The idea of translating lyrical songs with American Sign Language is a bit strange to me.

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For whom who cannot view this, can watch via YouTube below

According to the Wikipedia:

American Sign Language is a natural language as proved to the satisfaction of the linguistic community by William Stokoe, and contains phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax and pragmatics just like spoken languages. It is a manual language or visual language, meaning that the information is expressed not with combinations of sounds but with combinations of handshapes, palm orientations, movements of the hands, arms and body, location in relation to the body, and facial expressions. While spoken languages are produced by the vocal cords only, and can thus be easily written in linear patterns, ASL uses the hands, head and body, with constantly changing movements and orientations. Like other natural sign languages, it is “three dimensional” in this sense.

Music is an art form consisting of sound and silence expressed through time. Elements of sound as used in music are pitch (including melody and harmony), rhythm (including tempo and meter), structure, and sonic qualities of timbre, articulation, dynamics, and texture.

How can ASL and Music be compatible? It may be, or sometimes it is not compatible!

First, three things to remember:

1. Music has their own elements that is universal. Everyone (Deaf and Hearing people) can understand through hearing AND feeling music.

2. Lyrics are the spoken words of the song, and song lyric conveys its power through music and sound. Lyrical images and descriptive phrases need to connect with the ear, as well as the brain. These lyrics does NOT connect with the EYE of the viewer.

3. ASL Poetry comes with ASL rhymes and meter are commonly accepted in the Deaf community today. According to Clayton Valli, an ASL rhyme is formed through the repetition of particular handshapes, movement paths of signs, or non-manual signals (i.e. facial expressions).

Why would we insist on translating song lyrics with American Sign Language? This translation process may give Deaf person an access to music, but this does not provide an ultimate musical experience through ASL.

Why cannot we create something with ASL, in a poetic/dramatic/cinematic form, and complement this with music?

I know of one excellent example that can be accurately reflects to ASL music is Gallaudet’s famous Bison Song. See the video how two people express themselves with ASL poetic song and following drum beats simultaneously.