Jessica Allison Holmes Schulich School of Music Mcgill Univers
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Music, Disability, and Embodiment in Contemporary Performance By: Jessica Allison Holmes Schulich School of Music McGill University, Montreal June 2017 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Musicology © Jessica A. Holmes, 2017 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... 3 Abrégé ............................................................................................................................................ 3 List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ 5 Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... 6 Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................. 12 A Primer on Disability Studies ................................................................................................................ 23 Music and Disability Studies: Hermeneutics and Socio-cultural Analyses ............................................ 29 Chapter Breakdown ................................................................................................................................. 39 Chapter 2: Listening beyond Hearing: Music and Deafness .................................................. 42 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 42 A Primer on Deafness and Disability ...................................................................................................... 46 “The Deaf Percussionist Who Listens with Her Whole Body”............................................................... 56 Listening beyond Sensory Ideals ............................................................................................................. 67 Conclusion: Musicology Gains from Deafness ....................................................................................... 93 Interlude: Singing beyond Hearing in Christine Sun Kim’s Face Opera II ....................... 101 Chapter 3: Looking beyond Staring: Visible Disability in Music Performance ................. 110 Gaelynn Lea .......................................................................................................................................... 110 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 111 Andrea Bocelli: The “Angel-voiced Italian singer” .............................................................................. 118 Thomas Quasthoff: “A Transcendent Voice” ....................................................................................... 127 Bradford Cox: The “Dress-clad, Out-loud Singer of Queer Punks” ..................................................... 134 The “Avant-Pop Pixie” and her “Baby Doll Lisp”: Grimes and Vocal Dysfluency ............................. 147 Conclusion: Looking Beyond Staring ................................................................................................... 158 Chapter 4: Performing Beyond Dis/ability: Music, Technology, and the Body................. 163 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 163 Adrian Anantawan: “The Hand is Artifice; the Talent, Quite Real” ..................................................... 169 Jason Barnes: The Cyborg Drummer .................................................................................................... 180 Towards an Alternative Conception of Musical Ability and Technology ............................................ 190 Conclusion: Performing beyond Ability ............................................................................................... 194 Conclusion: Music, Disability, and Embodiment in Contemporary Performance ............. 197 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 204 Abstract Music, Disability, and Embodiment in Contemporary Performance Building on research in musicology, disability studies, Deaf studies, and sound studies, this dissertation analyzes the creative endeavours of contemporary disabled musicians and listeners in relation to three idealized pillars of musical experience: listening, looking, and performing. In Chapter 2, I approach listening through the musical experiences of deaf people, revealing multi-sensory ways of listening beyond hearing while detailing the precarious social, physical, and musical contours of “normal” hearing. Chapter 3 examines performances by musicians with “visible” disabilities to interrogate the presumed visual dynamics of stigma in existing disability theory: I argue that genre, sound, and identity politics shape the spectator’s perception of the performer’s disability. Finally, in Chapter 4, I show how amputee musicians intervene in prevailing conceptions of musical ability through their use of prosthetic technologies, unsettling the customary physical terms of musical expression. Ultimately the dissertation pushes beyond naturalized conceptions of music, handed-down sensory hierarchies, and conventional understandings of musical expertise to offer a plural understanding of music and disability alike. Abrégé Musique, incapacité et encorporation dans la performance contemporaine S'appuyant sur la recherche en musicologie, en études sur les personnes ayant des incapacités, en études sur la surdité, ainsi qu’en études du son, cette thèse analyse les déploiements créatifs chez les musiciens et les auditeurs contemporains ayant des incapacités en fonction de trois piliers idéalisés de l'expérience musicale: l'écoute, l'observation, et l'exécution. Dans le deuxième chapitre, j'aborde l’écoute musicale à partir de l’expérience des personnes sourdes, révélant ainsi des modes d'écoute multi-sensoriels allant au-delà de l’ouïe, en plus de détailler la précarité des contours sociaux, physiques, et musicaux de l'audition dite « normale ». Le troisième chapitre examine les œuvres de musiciens ayant des incapacités « visibles » afin de remettre en question les hypothèses avancées dans la littérature existante sur la dynamique visuelle de la stigmatisation chez les personnes ayant des incapacités. Je suggère que la perception du spectateur du déficit de l’interprète est façonnée conjointement par le genre, le son, et le champ identitaire. Finalement, dans le quatrième chapitre, je démontre comment les musiciens amputés interviennent dans les conceptions dominantes de la capacité musicale grâce à leur utilisation de technologies prothétiques, perturbant ainsi les conditions physiques habituelles de l'expression musicale. En ce sens, cette thèse propose d’aller au-delà des conceptions naturalisées de la musique, des hiérarchies sensorielles transmises, ainsi que des compréhensions normatives de l'expertise musicale pour offrir une approche plurielle à la musique et à l’incapacité. 4 List of Figures Figure 2.1 ……………………………………………………………………………….. 69 Jeannette Jones makes the Bent-3 handshape. Photographs by Jeannette Jones. Used by permission. Figure 2.2 ……………………………………………………………………………….. 76 Christine Sun Kim, Muffled Club Music (2016). Photograph by Christine Sun Kim. Used by permission. Figure 2.3 ……………………………………………………………………………….. 78 Christine Sun Kim, How to Measure Loudness (2014). Photograph by Christine Sun Kim. Used by permission. Figure 2.4 ……………………………………………………………………………….. 104 Christine Sun Kim, Face Opera II, High Line Hotel, New York, May 11, 2013. Photograph by Conrado Johns. Used by permission. Figure 2.5 ……………………………………………………………………………….. 106 Christine Sun Kim, Face Opera II, High Line Hotel, New York, May 11, 2013. Photograph by Francisca Benitez. Used by permission. Figure 3.1 ……………………………………………………………………………….. 140 Bradford Cox. Photograph by Gregory Harris. Published in Interview Magazine, May 6, 2013. Figure 3.2 ……………………………………………………………………………….. 141 Bradford Cox. Photograph by Mark Abrahams. Published in The New York Times Style Magazine, November 2, 2011. Figure 4.1 ……………………………………………………………………………….. 179 Adrian Anantawan. Chartwell Speakers website. Figure 4.2 ……………………………………………………………………………….. 190 Jason Barnes. Published in New Scientist, March 6, 2014. Photograph by Rob Felt/Georgia Tech. Acknowledgements Doing a PhD is as much about personal growth as it is about professional growth, and the dissertation is always a culmination of that joint development. My dissertation is a creative labour that saw me availing myself of all possible resources at McGill. My time at McGill has been a blessing. I have benefitted immeasurably from the university’s many brilliant minds, its commitment to interdisciplinarity, and its prestige in the international academic community. I am exceptionally grateful to have been a recipient of the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship from 2012-2015, and to have also benefited from numerous McGill graduate student travel grants, and several enriching teaching appointments, including The Art of Listening. The academic staff and administrators in Department of Music Research have played a key