BY JESSIE WANG, LEAD WRITER (COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL AWARENESS)
The Braille music code was invented to empower musicians with blindness or low vision to read music in a similar way to sighted people.
Yes, we do mean read music, rather than learn music by ear. We’re talking about reading notes as well as music markings such as repeats, accidentals, and dynamics.
We wanted to learn more about this unique experience of accessing music, so we asked the experts. In this interview, we chat (excitedly) with cellist and accessible format producer Christina Christensen; along with Sydney Chamber Choir member, Christ Church St Laurence choral scholar, and Braille transcriber Ria Andriani.
They both work on Vision Australia’s Braille music team, and have some valuable insights to offer.
Hey Christina and Ria! Thanks for taking part in this interview. For those of us (myself included) who have never heard of Braille music before, can you explain what it is? How does it work?
RIA: Braille music is a notation system that renders the pictorial nature of print staff notation into a series of horizontal symbols that still retains the crucial information such as pitch, values, and expressive markings.
CHRISTINA: The Braille music code was invented by Louis Braille in the mid-1820s. He was blind and the inventor of the Braille literary. Louis Braille was inspired by his passion for music, being a talented organist, to create a code that enabled blind or vision impaired musicians to access music in a similar way to sighted people.
How did you two get involved with Braille music?
R: I was encouraged to learn music as a child. My Dad got frustrated because I managed to get to grade 5 piano without knowing Braille music, and, having better things to do, I forgot all the pieces I’ve learnt. He organised lessons with this really old blind pianist in Bandung where I lived at the time.
When I got to Australia, I became quite involved with an annual event called Braille Music Camp. Then in my first camp, we did this really difficult, incredibly awesome choral piece called Rejoice in the Lamb by Benjamin Britten. The rest was history.
I seriously got into singing, and studied music at university, and am still advocating for broader use of Braille music.
C: About 10 years ago, I saw a job advertised by Vision Australia for the position of music transcriber. At the time, I was teaching cello and working freelance as a professional cellist, so it fitted in well with what I was doing. I find the music code brilliant and in many ways without using staves as we do in print music; the use of octave signs to show pitch is ingenious.
Can you describe what a typical day in Vision Australia’s Braille music team looks like?
R: Our work is quite varied. Although Christina and I have music as part of our work portfolio, we also do other things. I mainly work as a proofreader and often have to switch between projects. So, I might work on advance maths in the morning, mix it up with music, and then work on some restaurant menus after lunch.
C: There really isn’t a typical day for me! That’s what I enjoy about working in this transcription team! As Ria mentions, the variety of jobs is broad, although my main focus is on Braille music transcription. This requires that I know the code well and for the basic set-up and structure I am confident in my skills. When a complex piece needs transcribing, I will use my Braille music manual and talk with my other amazing Braille music transcribers and proofreaders from my team to check we concur on any questions that may arise.
Talk us through the transcription process from written music to Braille music.
R: First, you need to find the source. It can be PDF, a scanned copy, an electronic file, or a hard copy. Nowadays, you have a couple of options. You either do it manually using your knowledge of Braille music and a Braille software like Duxbury, or you can find if an electronic file has already exists online. File types such as Music XML, Sibelius, or Finale can speed up the process considerably. The music gets transcribed, or translated using a series of software we have here at VA.
We have a few different ways of laying out the music: piano music would look different to vocal music. Vocal music could take the form of a part book, where you get only your part, or a conductor score with each voice laid out on separate lines. We can also produce orchestral music, either as a full score or as a part. The time frame usually varies depending on the complexity of the music and how many parts is required.
When it’s ready, it gets proofread, and then sent out to the client.
I’m curious, can you describe what some of the musical markings (for instance, repeats, accidentals, dynamics) would look and feel like in Braille music?
C: If you have had any chance to feel Braille, even if it’s at the train station lifts, you will have an idea of what the musical markings feel like. As I mentioned earlier, the notes in music are set out in a linear horizontal line. There is a hierarchy in the way the Braille music code is set out – so, a simple print music bar such as this translates to the Braille music code as shown:
With this example, the bars are separated by a space. Any dynamics or other words such as the ‘rit.’ marked in the second-last bar must always precede the notes that follow. For different instrumental settings – such as a piano score, a full score, an instrumental piece, or a song with melody and lyrics – each of these types of pieces has its own particular formatting layout in the Braille music code, and this takes some time to learn.
How different is Braille music from literary Braille? Is it necessary to have prior knowledge of language or music before being able to learn to read through this new process?
R: Not necessarily. Music is a self-contained system. Knowledge of literary Braille is a double-edge sword. It will aid you to understand some of the elements like directions and dynamic markings, but it might also confuse you. After a while, there’s a mode in my brain called ‘Braille music’, and that’s how I can tell the difference between music and the rest of the Braille codes I work on.
How prolific is Braille music in Australia?
R: Here at Vision Australia, we have a strong demand to produce Braille music. We do work with a number of universities where students are doing a Bachelor or Master of music. We also have a lot of pianists, choir members, and people whose personal goal is to learn or to improve their knowledge of an instrument.
Wow – how can we be a part of this initiative? And how can we help?
R: Unfortunately, Braille music is not widely recognised in the mainstream music communities in Australia. Often, a lot of people don’t know that it exists, and that we offer the services.
I guess the easiest thing for a publication like CutCommon is to make people aware that blindness isn’t a barrier to learning music – there are established paths to make it accessible, and we’re in a very fortunate position to be part of it.
There are a number of projects and initiatives that have improved access to music. Personally, I’m a fan of Choral Public Domain Library, which publishes music in various formats including Music XML. It has made it a lot easier for me to translate and produce music on short notice.
C: Spread the word! Also, through personal support, Vision Australia offers clients 360 Braille pages per year to be produced for a client for free! That’s at least a start to getting some music underway!
Lastly, give us a hint of where Vision Australia’s Braille music team is heading next.
R: Vision Australia is currently part of the DAISY international music projects. Our ultimate aim is to make it easier to produce and share music between large organisations at a global level. So, if someone in South Africa wants to get involved in a performance of Handel’s Messiah, they can potentially do that using our transcription product. We’re still a long way away from the end goal, but we hope to get there one day.
C: Ria and I were fortunate to present at the recent Round Table Conference held in Brisbane on Information Access for People with Print Disabilities Inc. The theme this year was on the changing landscape for accessible information. Our presentation involved looking at the technology we currently use, and how improved scripting to softwares – including a possible newly developed file format called MNX that will be an improved upon extension of the music XML file – may be the way into the future.
The challenges posed by translation softwares on a global level have yet to be solved for a greater increase in Braille music output and accuracy in the final file output.
You can learn more about print accessibility on the Vision Australia website.
Below: An excerpt from the Rachmaninov Preludes, Op. 32 (supplied visual score and photo of corresponding Braille code).
What does this story mean to you?
If you like, you can thank Jessie for volunteering her time for Australian arts journalism. No amount too much or little 🙂
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