Sally McKeown on a York University project which is aiming to enhance music for deaf and hard-of-hearing listeners. Imagine what it must be like to be a music lover who goes deaf; the emptiness and the exasperation as you strain to hear your favourite and gradually fading phrases. But a project at the University of York is now using modern technology to enhance music for deaf and hard-of-hearing listeners.

Gordon Dalgarno is an electronics expert and music lover. After a career in industry, he is working at the university as a research fellow on Enabling Music, a project that gives practical help to individuals and institutions as well as carrying out research and development.

Only a small number of people have no functional hearing at all. For others with a hearing loss, aids can make sound louder, but not necessarily clearer. They are designed for speech, not music, and their small size means they cannot enhance the full range of sound.

For people with any level of hearing loss, it is vital that musical instruments are in tune and that the sound is as clear and undistorted as possible. The sound itself can even be tailored to make the best use of the person’s residual hearing.

Good headphones (Gordon tries out several types until he finds a pair to suit each person) can make an enormous difference, especially if the two sides can be separately adjusted.

Some people with a hearing loss are sensitive to particular sounds which, if they become disproportionately loud, may cause physical discomfort. Amplification may not be the solution. Gordon has developed a test tape of music to see if boosting or cutting certain frequency bands improves listening.

If ordinary headphones are not adequate, he uses a box which he has created to feed sound into each ear separately from a headphone or loudspeaker.

Computers also have a role. Gordon has created software called Vistamusic (VISual and TActile), which can be used with an Archimedes computer with a midi keyboard to provide a digital interface to the computer. This can be controlled by its function keys which can be covered with symbols for anyone with poor recognition or memory skills. And sounds can be complemented with a visual presentation on the screen, with different colours representing each instrument.

A colour graphic display is built up in time with the music, so people with very little hearing can see the music unfold the colours, size and contrast of the notes can all be adjusted for anyone with limited sight.

This combination of two senses can give some people a greater appreciation of the music.

So what’s it like in practice? I listened to Bach’s Italian Concerto, a complex piece which is quite hard to follow. Vistamusic allows it to be slowed down on the computer.

In the original score, the harpsichord is dominant, but another instrument, such as a flute or oboe, can be substituted if that is easier for the listener to hear. Instruments can also be chosen for their contrasting sound so that they don’t mask one another.

In most musical compositions, sounds blend, overlap and run into one another. On the computer, they can be clipped and made more staccato so they are not so blurred.

Alternatively, the music can be played an octave higher or lower, if that span is more easily heard these facilities can make the difference between a meaningless cacophony and a pleasurable listening experience.

Vistamusic also allows deaf people to compose their own music, selecting the instruments they find easiest to hear and trying out different variations. Someone who finds it difficult to play instruments, can capture their performance on the computer, and mix and match phrases to create the best performance.

Vistamusic has not just been used with children and adults with poor hearing. Richard who has cerebral palsy, has always en-joyed listening to music, but his physical disabilities cut him off from music education he couldn’t sing, write or play an instrument. His local social services paid for a copy of Vistamusic and he has composed “Oily Rag”, a lively piece featuring a honky tonk piano.

The music tape costs Pounds 4. Both it and the box, as well as further information about the project, are available from Gordon Dalgarno, 23 Farmstead Rise, Haxby, York YO3 3LL. Tel: 01904 761594. e-mail:gd@ohm.york.ac.uk