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Blind musicians are singers or instrumentalists who are physically unable to see. In many cultures, blind people have become musicians in disproportionate numbers. LeAnn Rimes singing in concert A singer is a type of musician who uses his or her voice as an instrument to produce music. ...
A musician is a person who plays or composes music. ...
See also Blindness (novel) Blindness can be defined physiologically as the condition of lacking visual perception. ...
A musician is a person who plays or composes music. ...
Why music is a popular profession among the blind
 Blues singer and guitarist Blind Lemon Jefferson Several theories have been advanced as to why the profession of musician is a popular one for the blind. There has long been a folk belief that blind people hear better than sighted people, and that therefore the blind have an advantage when performing music. Some recent studies have supported this belief. For example, research has shown that blind musicians are more likely to have perfect pitch than sighted musicians. [1]. Similarly, a paper published in Nature in 2004 found that people born blind or who went blind early in childhood were better able to recognize variations in pitch than were sighted people. People who went blind later in life had no advantage over those who could still see. The research team believed that this suggested differences in early brain development between those with sight and those who lost their sight in their early years. Specifically, they thought that in those blind from childhood the visual cortex, usually used for processing visual images, might be used for processing [sound] and other sensory input instead.[2] Blind Lemon Jefferson, engraving from 1920s Paramount Records sleeve. ...
Blind Lemon Jefferson, engraving from 1920s Paramount Records sleeve. ...
Absolute pitch is either the exact pitch of a note described by its number of vibrations per second, or the ability, commonly referred to as perfect pitch, to identify a note by name without the benefit of a reference note. ...
Nature is one of the oldest and most reputable scientific journals, first published on 4 November 1869. ...
In music, pitch is the perception of the frequency of a note. ...
Comparative brain sizes In the anatomy of animals, the brain, or encephalon (Greek for in the head), is the higher, supervisory center of the nervous system. ...
The visual cortex is the general term applied to both the primary visual cortex (also known as striate cortex or V1) and upstream visual cortical areas also known as extrastriate cortical areas (V2, V3, V4, V5). ...
Another theory points to the fact that blind people often have limited employment opportunities, in part because many jobs are difficult to do without sight, and in part because the blind often experience discrimination which prevents them from working at those jobs which they could perform. In many cultures, musical performance is one of the few jobs perceived as an acceptable profession for the blind. Thus, according to this theory, blind people have often turned to music because it has been one of the few ways in which they could earn a living. [3]
These theories are not mutually exclusive, of course: both biological and social factors may be responsible for blind people choosing to become musicians. Indeed, they may reinforce each other. The fact that blind people are perceived as musically talented means that blind children are often encouraged to take up music. This, in turn, adds to the number of blind musicians, which adds to the perception that blind people are musically talented, and so on.
Resources for blind musicians Historically, many blind musicians, including some of the most famous, have performed without the benefit of formal instruction, since such instruction relies extensively on written musical notation. However, today there are many resources available for blind musicians who wish to learn Western music theory and classical notation. Louis Braille, the man who created the braille alphabet for the blind, also created a system of classical notation for the blind called Braille music. This system allows the blind to read and write music just as the sighted do. The largest collection of Braille musical scores is located at the Library of Congress.[4] Outside the U.S., the largest collection of braille music scores is stored at the National Library for the Blind in England. [5] Music theory is a field of study that describes the elements of music and includes the development and application of methods for analyzing and composing music, and the interrelationship between the notation of music and performance practice. ...
Louis Braille (January 4, 1809 – January 6, 1852) was the inventor of braille, a world-wide system used by blind and visually impaired people for reading and writing. ...
The braille system, named after Louis Braille, is a method that the blind use to read and write. ...
Braille music code allows music to be notated using braille cells so that music can be read by visually impaired musicians. ...
Library of Congress, Jefferson building The Library of Congress is the unofficial national library of the United States. ...
The National Library for the Blind is a public library in the United Kingdom, founded 1882, which aims to ensure that visually impaired people have the same access to library services as sighted people. ...
Computer technology and the Internet make it possible in theory for blind musicians to be more independent in composing and studying music. In practice, however, most programs rely on graphical user interfaces, which are difficult for the blind to navigate. There has been some progress in creating screen-reading interfaces for the blind, especially for the Windows operating system. [6] A drawing of a desktop computer. ...
A graphical user interface (or GUI, sometimes pronounced gooey) is a method of interacting with a computer through a metaphor of direct manipulation of graphical images and widgets in addition to text. ...
There are several traditions of navigation. ...
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating environments and operating systems created by Microsoft for use on personal computers and servers. ...
Today there are also several organizations devoted to the support of blind musicians. The National Resource Center for Blind Musicians, located in Connecticut, has an extensive website. [7] The Music Education Network for the Visually Impaired is a group of students, parents, teachers, and professionals devoted to musical education for the blind. [8]
The image of the blind musician The image of the blind musician is an important touchstone in many cultures, even where the influence of the blind on music has been limited. The idea of Homer, the blind poet, for example, has had a long existence in Western tradition, even though its basis in truth is uncertain. Similarly, in his book Singer of Tales, Alfred Lord explains that in Yugoslavia he found many stories of blind musicians, but few current musicians who were actually blind. [9] Natalie Kononenko had a similar experience in Turkey, though one Turkish musician of great talent, Ashik Veysel was in fact blind. [10] Bust of Homer in the British Museum For other uses, see Homer (disambiguation). ...
Yugoslavia (Jugoslavija in all south Slavic languages, in Cyrillic ЈугоÑлавија) is a term used for three separate but successive political entities that existed during most of the 20th century on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe. ...
The popularity of the idea of the blind musician has inspired several artists. John Singer Sargent painted a 1912 canvas based on this theme.[11], and Georges de la Tour has a whole series of paintings devoted to blind musicians. [12] Self Portrait, oil painting, 1907 John Singer Sargent (January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was a painter known for his portraits. ...
Georges de La Tour (1593 - 1652) was a French painter. ...
Though the idea of blind musicians may be even more prevalent than their actuality, it remains true that at many points in history and in many different cultures, blind musicians, individually or as a group, have made important contributions to the development of music. Some of these contributions are discussed below.
Blind musicians in China Court musician was a traditional profession for the blind in China in antiquity. The first musician mentioned in Chinese sources, Shi Kuang, was a blind performer in the 6th century B.C. The Guilds of Blind Musicians and Fortune-Tellers which were still around in China during the middle of the 20th century, claimed to have existed as far back as 200 BC. More recently, groups of blind buskers have continued to perform in Zuoquan County, and presumably in other areas as well.
One of the most popular musical works in China, "Erquan Yingyue (Moon Reflected in the Second Spring)", was composed in the first half of the 20th century by Hua Yanjun, better known as "Blind Ah Bing." [13] [14]
Biwa Hoshi in Japan In Japan, Heike Bawi, a form of narrative music, was invented and spread during the Kamakura period (1185-1333) by traveling musicians known as biwa hoshi, who were often blind. These musicians played the biwa, a kind of lute, and recited stories, of which the most famous was The Tale of the Heike. The musicians were sometimes known as "blind priests" because they wore robes and shaved their heads, though they were not, in fact Buddhist priests. [15] The Kamakura period (Japanese: 鎌倉時代, Kamakura-jidai; 1185–1333) is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance of the Kamakura Shogunate; officially established in 1192 by the first Kamakura shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo. ...
Biwa hoshi (琵琶法師), also known as lute priests were travelling performers, who, in the era of Japanese history preceding the Meiji period, earned their income by reciting vocal literature to the accompaniment of biwa music. ...
A biwa (琵琶) is a Japanese short-necked fretted lute, and a close variant of the Chinese pipa. ...
The Tale of the Heike (Japanese: 平家物語, Heike monogatari) is an epic account of the struggle between the Minamoto and Taira clans for control of Japan at the end of the 12th century. ...
A replica of an ancient statue found among the ruins of a temple at Sarnath Buddhism is a philosophy based on the teachings of the Buddha, SiddhÄrtha Gautama, a prince of the Shakyas, whose lifetime is traditionally given as 566 to 486 BCE. It had subsequently been accepted by...
Bandurists and lirnyky in Ukraine There is a very strong tradition of blind minstrelsy in Ukraine. At least from 1850 to 1930—and probably well before that as well—the majority of itinerant musicians in Ukraine were blind. Music was seen as a social-welfare system for those who could not work at other occupations, and as such it was not an occupation open to able-bodied individuals. The wandering blind minstrels were divided into two groups—bandurysts, or kobzars who played bandura, a transformed old-Slavic gusli with an attahced lute-like handle, and lirnyks, who played the lira, which was a crank-driven hurdy-gurdy. An itinerant is a person who travels from place to place with no real home. ...
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with kobza. ...
A kobzar (kобзар in Ukrainian) was a Ukrainian wandering bard of Cossack times, who played a stringed instrument called a kobza to accompany the recitation of epic dumas. ...
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with kobza. ...
The East Slavs are the ethnic group that evolved into the Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian peoples. ...
The Gusli (гусли) is an ancient Russian musical instrument, a kind of a harp, not to be confused with Balkan Gusle. ...
The lute is a plucked string instrument with a fretted neck and a deep round back. ...
The lirnyk were wandering Ukrainian musicians who performed religious, historical and epic songs. ...
French type guitar-body hurdy-gurdy A hurdy gurdy (alternately, hurdy-gurdy) is a stringed musical instrument. ...
The bandurists are much better known than the lirnyky, and are an important part of nationalist tradition in Ukraine. According to Natalie Kononenko in Ukrainian Minstrels: And the Blind Shall Sing,[16] bandurists were probably initially sighted Cossacks, who were especially associated with epic songs, or dumas. Lirnyky, on the other hand, were blind church singers organized into guilds who sang religious songs and were associated with beggars. By the middle of the 19th century, the two groups had merged; both sang many different types of songs, all were organized into the same guilds, and all were blind. The Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of Turkey. ...
The epic is a broadly defined genre of poetry, and one of the major forms of narrative literature. ...
A Duma (ДÌума in Russian) is any of various representative assemblies in modern Russia and Russian history. ...
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Ostap Veresai, the most famous bandurist of the 19th century, with his wife. Like the other bandurists of his day, Veresai was blind. The bandurists have a central place in the national identity of Ukraine. Folklorist Izmail Sreznevskyi argued that the Cossack bandurist actually witnessed the great battles about which they sang. This image of warrior-bards singing nationalist epics was quite popular, and there became a tradition that the great ancient singers were veterans valorously blinded in combat. This in turn led to the belief that the bandurist tradition had greatly weakened in the 19th century, since the traditional songs were now sung by people who were more like beggars than like warriors. Kononenko points out that there is no factual basis for this image, and her research showed that the minstrel tradition was still very strong and creative up until the 1930s. Image File history File links Ostap Veresai, the most famous Ukrainian bandurist of the 19th century, and his wife Kulyna. ...
Image File history File links Ostap Veresai, the most famous Ukrainian bandurist of the 19th century, and his wife Kulyna. ...
The concept of a National epic, a mythological or partly mythological large work of epic poetry of defining importance to a certain nation (a political (or would-be) entity and/or an ethno-religuous identity), is a product of the 19th century phenomenon of Romantic nationalism. ...
Because of the connection between bandurists and Ukrainian nationalism, the blind singers were often the focus of persecution by occupying powers, according to researcher Mikhail Khay. This persecution reached a height under Stalin in the 1930s, when many forms of Ukrainian cultural expression were crushed by the Soviet Union. Many sources claim that there was in fact a massacre of blind musicians during this period, though this has not been confirmed, and most details of the incident (including year, place, and method of execution) are disputed. It is fairly clear, however, that by the end of the 30s the tradition of blind minstrelsy had largely vanished. Today bandurist songs are mostly played by sighted, educated performers. During her research, Kononenko found only one blind folk performer of the old songs, a man named Pavlo Suprun. Iosif (usually anglicized as Joseph) Vissarionovich Stalin (Russian: Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин), original name Ioseb Jughashvili (Georgian: იოსებ ჯუღაშვილი; see Other names section) (December 21, 1879[1] – March 5, 1953) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and leader of the Soviet Union. ...
External links Zerkalo Nedeli (Дзеркало тижня - Dzerkal Tyzhnia Ukrainian: Weekly Mirror) is Ukraine’s most influential analytical weekly. ...
Traditional Irish musicians During the 16th, 17th, and 18th century, harpers, pipers, and other musicians traveled around Ireland, providing music for dances and other occasions. As in Ukraine, these musicians often faced persecution -- by the English, in this case. And, as in Ukraine, many of the Irish musicians were blind. The most famous of these blind musicians, Carolan, is still well known for his composition, "Carolan's Concerto." [17] In the fictional Forgotten Realms campaign setting, The Harpers are a semi-secret organization of good, created by Elminster, Finder Wyvernspur, and other powerful mortals that wanted to help out the world. ...
A bagpipe performer in Amsterdam. ...
European piano tuners In 19th century France and England, piano tuners were frequently blind. The first blind piano tuner is thought to be Claude Montal, who taught himself how to tune a piano while studying at L'Institution Nationale des Jeunes Aveugles in 1830. At first Montal's teachers were skeptical, doubting that a blind man could actually perform the necessary mechanical tasks. Montal's skill was undeniable, however, and he was soon asked to teach classes in tuning to his fellow students. Eventually, he also overcame public prejudice, and landed several prestigious jobs as a tuner for professors and professional musicians. Montal's success paved the way for other blind tuners, both in France and in England, where Montal's example and teaching methods were adopted by Thomas Rhodes Armitage. Today the image of the blind piano tuner is so engrained that people in England sometimes express surprise when they encounter a piano tuner who can see. [18] An organization of blind piano tuners remains active in Britain. [19] Wikimedia Commons has media related to: England Travel guide to England from Wikitravel English language English law English (people) List of monarchs of England – Kings of England family tree List of English people Angeln (region in northern Germany, presumably the origin of the Angles for whom England is named) UK...
Steinway Model D A piano is a keyboard instrument, widely used in western music for solo performance, chamber music, and accompaniment, and also as a convenient aid to composing and rehearsal. ...
The piano Piano is a common abbreviation for pianoforte, a large musical instrument with a keyboard (see keyboard instrument). ...
For with(out) prejudice in law, see Prejudice (law). ...
American country blues Blind musicians have made an enormous contribution to American popular music. This is particularly true in blues, gospel, jazz, and other predominantly African-American forms -- perhaps because discrimination added to their disability made it doubly difficult for black blind people to find other employment. In any case, the achievement of blind African-Americans in music is extensive. The first recorded gospel Sanctified barrel-house piano player, Arizona Dranes, was blind, as was Ray Charles, one of the most important figures in the creation of soul music. Art Tatum, commonly cited as the greatest jazz pianist of all time, was also blind. The blues is a vocal and instrumental form of music based on a pentatonic scale and a characteristic twelve-bar chord progression. ...
For the genre of Christian-themed music, see gospel music. ...
Jazz master Louis Armstrong remains one of the most loved and best known of all jazz musicians. ...
An African American (also Afro-American, Black American, or black), is a member of an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa. ...
To discriminate is to make a distinction. ...
Songs All music & lyrics written & arranged by: Morgana Lefay 1. ...
Arizona Dranes (1905hi (?) – 1960 (?)) was one of the first gospel artists to bring the Sanctified musical styles of Holiness churches religious music to the public in her records for Okeh and performances in the 1920s. ...
Ray Charles at the piano. ...
Soul music is a combination of rhythm and blues and gospel which began in the late 1950s in the United States. ...
Art Tatum (October 13, 1909 - November 4, 1956) was a famous American jazz pianist known for his virtuosic playing and creative improvisation. ...
But blind black musicians are still most strongly associated with the country blues. The first successful male country blues performer, Blind Lemon Jefferson was blind, and so were many other country bluesmen, including Blind Willie McTell, Blind Willie Johnson, Sonny Terry, and Blind Boy Fuller, to name only the best known. The figure of the black country bluesman became so iconic that when Eddie Lang, a white, sighted, jazz guitarist, wanted to choose a black pseudonym for purposes of recording blues records with Lonnie Johnson, he naturally settled on Blind Willie Dunn. [20] This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...
Blind Lemon Jefferson (September, 1893 – December, 1929) was an influential blues singer and guitarist from Texas. ...
Blind Willie McTell (May 5, 1901 – August 15, 1959) (probably born William Samuel McTear) was an influential blues singer and guitarist. ...
Blind Willie Johnson Blind Willie Johnson (c. ...
Saunders Terrell, better known as Sonny Terry, was born in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1911 and died on March 11, 1986 in Mineola, New York. ...
Blind Boy Fuller (born Fulton Allen) was an American blues guitarist and vocalist. ...
Eddie Lang (October 25, 1902 – March 26, 1933) was a jazz guitarist, considered by many the finest of his era. ...
Alfonzo Lonnie Johnson (February 8, 1894 – June 6, 1970) was a pioneering blues and jazz singer/guitarist born in New Orleans, Louisiana. ...
Eddie Lang (October 25, 1902 – March 26, 1933) was a jazz guitarist, considered by many the finest of his era. ...
List of famous blind musicians
 British jazz pianist George Shearing |
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