Class IX English Book: Beehive Chapter:2 The Sound of Music (Part1) Evelyn Glennie Listens to Sound without Hearing it Notes

Theme:

The first part of ‘The Sound of Music’ is based on the theme that earnest efforts and able guidance pave one’s way to success. The aspirations, endeavours and achievements of the eminent Scottish percussion musician Evelyn Glennie were made possible by her unfaltering determination, firm resolute and self-confidence. Those who learn to overcome their handicap certainly accomplish their goals. One should have faith in one’s abilities and then sky is the limit.

Detailed Explanation:

v The scene is of a train platform- it is underground and there is a huge rush at the platform, people are pushing each other to get way. There is a small thin girl, it is Evelyn. She is standing at the railway platform waiting for the train. And just as she feels the vibrations of the approaching train, she realizes that the train is about to come, she gets nervous and excited. This is the train that will take Evelyn to London. She is going there to learn music as she has got admission in the Royal Academy of Music.

v Right now, Evelyn is in Scotland. (She belongs to Scotland. It is a country in Europe. Life in Scotland is not as fast as in London. London has a very fast life. It is urban whereas Scotland has farms and countryside.) So that is why Evelyn is nervous because she is leaving Scotland for London. She is excited also because she is doing something that she always dreamt of. She is going to the Royal Academy of Music to learn music.

v Evelyn is seventeen years of age. She is a teenager and she is fresh from a Scottish farm. As Evelyn is from Scotland which has more of farms and country side, so, she has not seen fast life. That is why she is nervous and the writer says that she is fresh from a Scottish farm.

v Evelyn could not hear, and this was a bigger challenge for her. Moving from a rural area to a fast life was a smaller challenge. Evelyn faced a much bigger challenge that was her inability to hear.

v Isabel, Evelyn’s mother, recollects one incident when Evelyn was eight years old. She says that her daughter was waiting for her turn to play the piano but when her name was called out, she did not respond. Then her mother realized that Evelyn did not respond to her name as she did not hear her name being called out.

v The protagonist, Evelyn lost her sense of hearing in phases, It was a gradual process. In the beginning when she could hear partially, she managed to hide this disability from her friends and teachers. v Later when Evelyn was eleven years old her marks has started deteriorating. The Headmistress requested her parents to take her to the doctor. v The doctor checked upon Evelyn, and found out that she had lost the sense of hearing. He advised Evelyn’s parents that they should get hearing aids for her. (Hearing aids is an equipment that is fitted into your ear and it helps a person to hear to some extent.) He also suggested that Evelyn should be sent to school for the deaf children. v When Evelyn discovered that she could not hear and that she would be sent to a school for deaf children, that she was not as good as normal children, her world became colourless. It turned black. Now what does this mean “everything suddenly looked black”. It means that all of a sudden you get such bad news; you get some news that you don’t expect. And in return you see blackness all around you. That is how Evelyn responded to this news. v Although Evelyn was quite shaken by the news of her deafness still she was determined and did not want to give up. As she was passionate about music, this news also did not break her. She was determined to live life like normal people and follow her interest in music. When she saw a girl playing the xylophone, she wanted to play it too.

A Xylophone v Now on one hand Evelyn’s teachers discouraged her because they knew that she could not hear and hearing was an important part of music.

v But a percussionist saw that Evelyn was very passionate about music and so he decided something. v He thought that he would teach Evelyn to feel music. He took two large drums and tuned them to different notes. Drums are musical instruments and he tuned them. He tuned each drum to different notes. So, the sound produced by the drums was different. It was distinct. Both the drums made different sounds. Then he told Evelyn - He said that don’t try to listen through your ears. He said that try to sense it. Try to feel the music some other way. v Now as Ron had tuned both the drums to different notes, the upper part of Evelyn’s body, above the waist could feel the higher notes of the drum and the lower part of her body, the part down from the waist could feel the lower notes of the drum. v (This is how Evelyn can listen to sound although she cannot hear. She can sense different notes in different parts of a body.) v Ron Forbes taught Evelyn to respond to different sounds- different parts of Evelyn’s body responded to different sounds and that is how she could identify the sounds, and the different vibrations. v Once Evelyn overcame the hurdle, she started sensing the different sounds through the different parts of her body, she progressed in her career. As she had determination to become a famous, and good musician she did a lot of hard work. She toured the United Kingdom and performed with a youth orchestra. By the time she reached the age of sixteen years, she had decided to make music her life. v Evelyn gave an audition for the admission to the Royal Academy of Music and her score was the highest in the history of the Academy. Initially she performed in a group and as she got well in her music, and got confident, she started performing alone. She had achieved all the top awards by the time she had completed her three-year course at the Royal Academy of Music. v If anyone says that Evelyn has done something great, she does not acknowledge that, she is very humble and down to earth. She says that two important things for success are - hard work and aim in life. She says that if you work hard and you have an aim, a target which you have to achieve, then you will definitely achieve it. v Evelyn also achieved her goal. She worked hard, and she had an aim to become the top most, the most famous, the most sought-after musician of the world and she did that. She gained mastery of almost one thousand musical instruments and today she is the most popular multi percussionist of the world, she has a very busy schedule. She has programmes and concerts all over the world. v When you watch Evelyn work or perform so effortlessly although she cannot hear, you get very curious because she can identify the slightest, the minutest sound made by the musical instruments. v The writer of this lesson, Deborah Cowley once took Evelyn’s interview which lasted for two hours and she says that Evelyn never missed a single word that she spoke. v The ace musician laughed and told the writer that men who had bushy beards gave her trouble. It was so because when they spoke, she couldn’t see their lip movement as their lips were covered with the bushy beards. v Evelyn says that she does not only see the lip movement of the person’s face to make out what the person is speaking. She sees the whole face which means the entire expression of the face of the speaker makes her identify or know what the person is saying. She adds that the expression of the eyes helps her to make out what the person sitting in front of her is saying. v She speaks flawlessly with a Scottish lilt. The writer says that Evelyn’s speech is flawless, and she has a Scottish accent. (As she belongs to Scotland her voice has that accent.) v Evelyn says that she can speak clearly because she had learned the language. She studied till the age of eleven, till the time she could hear. But that doesn’t explain how she managed to learn French and master basic Japanese. After becoming deaf Evelyn also learned two new languages. She has learnt French and basic Japanese. So, one wonders that how could she learn these two new languages also despite her deafness.

v Evelyn playing the xylophone v Evelyn explains that how does she identify music. It creates sensation in her skin, in her cheekbones and even in her hair. So, every part of her body responds to music. When she plays the xylophone, she can sense the sound passing up the stick into her fingertips. v

v Evelyn leaning against the drums, to feel the resonances flowing into her body. v When Evelyn plays the drum, she leans towards the drum and she can feels the echo flowing into her body. Whenever Evelyn performs, she performs on a wooden platform and she removes her shoes so that she can feel the vibrations of the musical instruments pass through the floor, into her feet and up her legs. That is how she can feel the sound of the musical instruments.

v Not surprisingly, Evelyn delights her audiences. In 1991 she was presented with the Royal Philharmonic Society’s prestigious Soloist of the Year Award. Now James Blades is a master percussionist and his words were the ones that we read before we started reading the chapter. According to James, God took away Evelyn’s hearing ability but in return, he gave her a strong power of sensing sounds which enabled her to become a great musician. v Evelyn confesses that she is something of a workaholic and hard working. To be at par with those people who can hear, who are classical musicians, she works very hard but also has a deep sense of satisfaction as the rewards she gets for her hard work are huge and big. Apart from the regular concerts, Evelyn also gives free concerts in prisons and hospitals. She also takes classes for young musicians. For those children who want to learn music. v Ann Richlin who belongs to the Beethoven Fund for Deaf Children says that Evelyn is an inspiration for those children who cannot hear. And when they get to know Evelyn’s story, they feel that they can accomplish everything. They can fulfil all their dreams. v Evelyn Glennie has achieved so much in life that those people who are double her age have also not achieved those many things, that much popularity and those many awards as Evelyn has done. She has brought percussion to the front of the orchestra, and demonstrated that it can be very moving. v Evelyn’s story is an inspiration to those people who are physically disabled. They feel that if Evelyn can achieve her dreams even they can. And Evelyn has given a lot of pleasure to her audience by playing such good music.

Value points:

• The protagonist Evelyn Glennie was 8, when first time her hearing disability was noticed by her mother. • At the age of 11, her disability was confirmed at school. • She wanted to do career in Music, but her teachers discouraged her. • Fortunately she met Ron Forbes, the percussionist, who identified her potential and supported in achieving her goal. • He trained Evelyn to sense the music through different parts of our body. • Suddenly she was excited to feel the vibrations in every part of her body. • Evelyn followed him like an obedient student and in the meantime she had learnt to open her body and mind to sounds and vibrations. • After this, she never looked back. • Evelyn joined the famous Royal Academy of Music, worked hard with strong determination. Suddenly she got to the top. • In 1991, she bagged the Royal Philharmonic Society’s prestigious “Soloist of the Year Award” • She toured round the world for her concerts with a very hectic schedule and became a kind of workaholic. • Apart from this, she gave free concerts in prison & hospitals. • Evelyn soon became a shining super star and inspiration for not only the disabled ones but for all. • She achieved more than most people twice her age. • Evelyn has earned great name in orchestra. • She has inspired those who are handicapped and made them believe that if Evelyn could do that, why not they.