[Smt-talk] Schenkerian analysis - visual impaired student

[Notareschi, Loretta K]

Hello All,
I seem to have deleted the thread regarding Schenkerian analysis and visually impaired students, so please forgive the absence of Nicolas Meeus' original question.

However, I was chatting today with a friend and colleague of mine, Bill Stevens, who is a blind music professor at Santa Clara University in California. We talked a little bit about his experience with Schenkerian analysis (which he studied in graduate school), but mainly about notation issues in general with blind students. I thought some of the ideas he raised were noteworthy and generally-applicable enough to bring here, and he gave me permission to do so, as he is not on this list:

1) Professor Stevens thinks braille notation is cumbersome, expensive to produce, and difficult to use even for those well-trained in it. It may help a blind student who has been trained in it to read a score, but it doesn't help the blind student produce a score that the sighted can use (obviously crucial in a normal theory or composition class). 

2) The best software he's encountered that helps to solve this problem is called Lilypond. He is quite fond of this program and uses it to produce music examples for his students. The crucial feature of this software for the blind is that it is text-based. It is also apparently free and open-source. I took a quick look at their website just now (lilypond.org), and the examples shown seemed good. The software also runs on Mac, PC, and Linux operating systems, and will apparently export MIDI files.

Bill Stevens may be contacted through his website: Billstevensjazz.com.

All Best,
Loretta Notareschi


-------------------
Loretta K. Notareschi, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Music
Regis University
lnotares at regis.edu
303.964.5352
www.lorettanotareschi.com

"How all's to one thing wrought!"
-Gerard Manley Hopkins
________________________________________
From: smt-talk-bounces at lists.societymusictheory.org [smt-talk-bounces at lists.societymusictheory.org] On Behalf Of smt-talk-request at lists.societymusictheory.org [smt-talk-request at lists.societymusictheory.org]
Sent: Saturday, November 10, 2012 1:04 PM
To: smt-talk at lists.societymusictheory.org
Subject: [Possible SPAM: score=0005] Smt-talk Digest, Vol 46, Issue 12

Send Smt-talk mailing list submissions to
        smt-talk at lists.societymusictheory.org

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
        http://lists.societymusictheory.org/listinfo.cgi/smt-talk-societymusictheory.org

or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
        smt-talk-request at lists.societymusictheory.org

You can reach the person managing the list at
        smt-talk-owner at lists.societymusictheory.org

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of Smt-talk digest..."