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From:
Trevor Jenkins Date: Tue Feb 22, 2000 10:53 am Subject: Re: Writing Songs | ||||||||
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On Monday, 21 February, 2000 22:28:22, Stuart Thiessen wrote: > One of the most controversial subjects I have ever had to deal with in a > church is the subject of music. Some deaf people in the churches I've > attended love music and some hate music. Music is something that has > generally been a transcultural phenomenon among Christian churches. Recently I attended a meeting of the Deaf Christian Fellowship in London. As a hearer I was amazed that the worship was sung, though I use that term loosely -), but what amazed me more was that they used songs and choruses from the hearing church---some of which embody theology/symbolism that is difficult to fathom evenfor those with theological training. (If someone could tell me what panoply means and then how to translate into sign I would love to know.) At the end of the worship I wondered why there was no Deaf liturgy; we have different styles of worship and hymns in the hearing church why not in the Deaf church? > The > style, lyrics, instruments, etc. may vary but music is an integral part > of Christian worship. Durig this DCF meeting the only true instrument was a large drum. Who ever was hitting it wasn't always in time with those singing. :-) > I wondered if there was a way to use DanceWriting (or some other aspect > of the movement notation) and Signwriting to transcribe signed songs, > both those translated from existing hearing songs and those created by > deaf signers themselves. I would like to capture the rhythm and the > "flow" of the song so that the song is not just a bunch of signs strung > together, but a song that has been translated into a visual format for > deaf participants to enjoy. > > Any thoughts or responses?? I too have been thinking this. We've recently started a Deaf ministry at our church. A small group of people with various stages of sign language knowledge. I'm in the post-beginners camp, which is where most of us are (about 8). We have three or four through the next stage. We have one member who is working on recognition as an interpreter. We also have some songwriters in the church. Matt Redman was our worship director; he is now the same at our youth church in the adjacent larger town. At the moment we are limiting our signing activities to the worship. When our Deaf members come we try to give them 1-on-1 support during the preaching. Occasionally we will arrange for an interpreter if the service is evangelistic or we have a special preacher. For the worship we have discussed having a standard interpretation of the songs. We have been given this advice by someone who started the Deaf ministry in one of the large London churches. I have thought that SignWriting would be the ideal transciption scheme (a sort of signed songbook) simply because HamNoSys and Stokoe notations are more cryptic. At conventional font sizes they might not be readable in worship situations. Also they require considerable training to be able to use properly. Based on success that Ronald H. Dettloff has had in teaching SignWriting to all ages, including children, in his congregation this is the way to go. Of course, in an ecclesiastical environment one needs more than "hymn books". There are the Scriptures and for us Anglicans the liturgy. Again Ronald has made a wonderful start with the KJV into ASL. I'd have prefered he used the NIV but someday I pray we'll have a signed translation. Collaboration between us might be impractical because I'm working with BSL and I suspect that you (Stuart) are using ASL. Although there are lexical borrowings from ASL into BSL they are still very much separate and distinct languages. Even SignWriting doesn't help with cross-cultural translation. If there are other BSL users here with an interest in this topic maybe they would like to get in touch off-list? Regards, Trevor British Sign Language is not inarticulate handwaving; it's a living language. So recognise it now. -- <>< Re: deemed! | ||||||||
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