Music Beyond Sound: Weighing the Contributions of Touch, Sight, and Balance

Ludwig van Beethoven suffered many hardships in his life, but the least known among them may be the persistent slivers he endured while handling wood. Yes, wood! Be it through clenching a wooden stick between his teeth or cutting the legs off of a grand piano, he is said to have developed resourceful methods that enabled him to feel mechanical vibrations of music in an effort to compensate for his failing sense of hearing (Wallace, 2018). Indeed, by all accounts, Beethoven was profoundly deaf by the time he composed his masterful ninth symphony. Stories of its debut in Vienna in 1824 suggest that Beethoven had to be turned around to see the rapturous applause of the audience.

The notion of feeling music continues to this day (Moore, 2019). Cities around the world host Deaf raves—giant parties where dancers feel the music through powerful subwoofers and bass shakers connected to floorboards. They also dance to the music, taking inspiration from visualizations that are projected onto large overhead screens. There is also a growing cadre of deaf musicians who are performing signed music (see bit.ly/37sQv4h). This music tends to be beat heavy, featuring lyrics delivered through sign language. Fueled in part by this cultural interest, researchers have begun to investigate the processes that enable deaf music and the ways in which auditory and nonauditory modalities combine to influence the experience of music for listeners of varying hearing ability