Conference Agenda

Marc Applebaum’s 2015 piece for string quartet, Darmstadt Kindergarten, disrupts visual performance standards through its use of non-instrumental, choreographed hand gestures. In this paper, I employ Joseph Straus’s notion of “deaf hearing” – particularly its constituent domains of “seeing” and “silent,” or “inner” hearing – to argue that Darmstadt Kindergarten welcomes its listeners to, per the composer, “‘hear’ the instrumental material when later voiced by choreographed action,” even when entirely silent. (Straus 2011, 167–170; Applebaum 2015).

In Darmstadt Kindergarten, after each repetition of a seventeen-measure theme, one of the four performers rises from their chair, sets their instrument down, and performs the next repetition choreographically – through carefully-synchronized hand gestures rather than instrumental sounds – such that the final repetition of the theme is entirely choreographic and ostensibly silent. In my analysis, I outline the relationship between the piece's instrumental and choreographic versions. To do so, I divide the score into ten “gestural groups,” each of which possesses a distinct character; these groups serve as the basic formal units of the piece. This division allows for the comparison between instrumental and choreographic material, both within one performer’s part and across the ensemble. Finally, I consider how the piece’s macrostructure complicates the listener/viewer’s ability to comprehend the piece and requires them to engage in “silent hearing.”

Following this analysis, I consider how the piece’s optional introduction – which consists of a repetition of the theme played on instruments, but with the cellist silently miming its instrumental part – engages with scholarship on mimetic comprehension, bodily hearing, and motor theories of perception (Cox 2016; Mead 1999; Godøy 2019). I also discuss the relationship and difference between Applebaum’s choreographic gesture and practices of musical signing in Deaf music. I argue that, although Applebaum’s means for invoking his audience’s “aural imagination” are distinct from Deaf musical practices, they encourage audiences to reconsider what it means to “hear” and challenge established standardized listening practices. Finally, I encourage further scholarship on music and performance which, through their structure, framing, or presentation, encourages audiences to partake in disablist or otherwise non-normative modes of hearing.

In this talk, I reframe sign language cover songs as music analysis, arguing that Deaf listeners are expert formal analysts who use sign language to convey analytical insights into the form of existing pieces of popular music through the medium of sign language cover songs. Sign language cover songs are placed on a continuum from literal to free translations, and from descriptive to suggestive analysis.

I elaborate on three analytical parameters: movement type, space, and nonmanual markers. As I have argued, these elements are some of the fundamental building blocks of musicality in sign language (2024, 10). I demonstrate how each parameter can be used to articulate aspects of musical form.

I argue that sign language covers create analytical commentary on the music that should not be ignored. Reframing sign language covers as music analysis highlights the wealth of music-analytical information emerging from Deaf cultures.

Fictional depictions of autistic characters in film and television often misrepresent the realities of autism, leading to harmful stereotypes. These portrayals may frame autistic individuals as savant geniuses or as emotionally cold, dangerous figures, which generate unrealistic expectations and fuel societal misunderstandings. Additionally, autistic characters are frequently infantilized, undermining their autonomy and making it more difficult for them to be taken seriously in both professional and personal contexts. These skewed portrayals contribute to a lack of appropriate support and accommodations, as society either assumes that autistic individuals do not need assistance or are too difficult to engage with. As a result, autistic people often face challenges in accessing necessary services, employment opportunities, and social acceptance.

This paper uses topic theory (Ratner 1980) and the Congruence-Associationist Model (CAM) (Cohen 2013) to analyze how music and visual editing amplify these misrepresentations. For example, I examine the portrayal of Woo Young-Woo, the protagonist of the Netflix series Extraordinary Attorney Woo (2022), a 27-year-old lawyer who is also autistic. The character’s musical theme, “Woo Young-Woo, the Same Backwards and Forwards” (WYW), reinforces her infantilized depiction, with the music evoking the childhood topic through musical features and socio-cultural associations (Bourne 2024). Despite Woo’s adult status, the theme is employed during key moments of her introduction, further associating her with childlike qualities.

The paper explores how the theme embeds the childhood topic with features like major mode, high instrumentation, and syncopation. Visuals further support these associations, including Woo’s whimsical, childlike surroundings and actions. These audiovisual cues conspire to reinforce the infantilization of autistic adults, perpetuating stereotypes that affect public perceptions of autism. By revealing these problematic portrayals, the paper argues for more accurate and nuanced depictions of autism that will foster greater understanding, promote societal acceptance, and ensure autistic individuals receive the respect and support they deserve.