Some time ago, after posting about my musical distortion problem, David Lambert contacted me and confessed to having the same problem but recommended I try specific YouTube videos, first, Ravel’s Bolero and, second, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy. I did so; the results were terrific. Despite my distortion problem, I enjoyed the two videos way beyond my expectations. You can read what happened here and here.

Following these two musical re-awakenings, I invited David to compile a list of other music pieces he still enjoyed listening to and offered my website as a platform to post his findings. Here is his response. If you have encroaching deafness accompanied by music distortion and have abandoned the pleasures of listening to music, we invite you to sample from the list. If you do so, please Leave a Comment or email David or me with your response.

Music For Deaf Ears
David Lambert

Deafness robs music lovers of one of their main pleasures in life. About 20 years ago it robbed me of mine. Or that’s what I thought as increasing hearing loss turned orchestral and choral music into traffic noise, and high notes fell flat. I stopped trying to listen to music. Hundreds of my LPs went to a charity shop; the rest, including CDs, gathered dust. Without my powerful NHS-supplied Nathos Auto UP hearing aids I can’t even hear myself shouting. Even with them, I manage conversations only in quiet rooms with a notepad for the person I’m chatting to to write down what I miss. And I can’t lip read so television programmes without subtitles and all radio are a dead loss.

Despite this, a few years ago I made a wonderful discovery: there were pieces of music I could still hear well enough to enjoy. It’s added a whole new dimension to my life. I’m now 91 but my hearing has not got much worse, and I’m hoping the following notes, based on what I have learned and the similar experiences of fellow sufferer Ben Bennetts, kindly hosting these thoughts on his blog, will help others with severe high-frequency hearing loss to find pleasure in music again.

The secret of my success was experimenting with YouTube videos of musical performances, viewed on my desktop computer’s monitor and heard through two small desktop speakers. I found almost any piece I searched for, many with a choice of interpretations. Isn’t that amazing?

Before I suggest some (mostly classical) pieces of music to try, here are a few observations and tips. Certain pieces and types of sound will be easier for some to hear than others. For me, they are percussion instruments, strong rhythms, strings in unison, wind instruments, and the odd piece for solo voice, violin or piano, some with surprisingly high notes. Don’t get your hopes up too much. You might find only part of a concerto, symphony, or trio still sounds well; often, slow movements work best. Memory of a piece you used to know might help you to bridge bits you can no longer hear and some non-aural aids can enhance your listening experience: subtitled versions of songs (most aren’t but you can usually find the words elsewhere), camerawork focussing on each member of an orchestra as they play a prominent passage and, especially if you are an oldie, singers and instrumentalists with life-affirming young faces.

Here, then, is a list of pieces of music that still give me enjoyment or, until very recently, did. I chose most from more than one version—Beethoven’s Choral Fantasia (which works for Ben too) was my top pick from more than 20. I can’t be sure all will be always available of course. URLs often don’t work as links to pieces so I’ll suggest keywords to google to find them. After typing, click on “video”. Don’t google my comments in parentheses. Most items are videos, and a few are just recorded sound. I’ve marked my own favourites with an asterisk*.

Good luck to anyone who gives this a go!

David Lambert
david.lamberhurst@yahoo.co.uk

• Bach BWV78 Wir eilen Van Veldhoven (A wonderfully exhilarating duet 6:41 minutes into this cantata, but lost to me in the last few months. Try, too, the Stich-Randall sound-only version).
• Bach Invention No. 8 Gould (sound only)
• Bach Prelude and Fugue No 1 Book 1 Maurice Cole (Do also see Paul Barton playing this to a blind elephant)
• Beethoven Choral Fantasia Bonn*
• Beethoven 4^th Piano Concerto 2^nd Movement Y E Son, Manze* (!)
• Beethoven Archduke Trio Grier* (Andante Cantabile, starting at 24:28 but the whole trio if your hearing’s up to it)
• Beethoven Fur Elise Rousseau
• Bernstein Candide complete 1989* (To my mind this is Bernstein’s best work: an operetta with wonderful tunes and witty words based on Voltaire’s novel poking fun at Leibniz’s philosophy of optimism. Currently put online by arnau884, this concert performance was conducted in London’s Barbican by Bernstein, full of vim but with not long to live. The soloists are splendid and the numbers have subtitles. Do at least try The Best of All Possible Worlds, Oh Happy We, The Ballad of El Dorado, Bon Voyage, The Kings’ Barcarolle and What’s the Use?
• Beiderbecke At the Jazz Band Ball (sound only)
• Boccherini Musica Notturna delle strade di Madrid (Night Music of the streets of Madrid) Angel Fire
• Britten The Salley Gardens Pears * (sound only)
• Canteloube Bailero Netania Davrath (sound only)
• Collins (Anthony) Vanity Fair John Wilson (sound only but the version of this delightful little orchestral piece posted by Jayne Ann Strutt is illustrated by an attractive sequence of A. R. Quinton’s watercolours of traditional English village scenes)
• Dvorak Rusalka von Stade
• Glass Madeira River Third Coast Percussion
• Grieg Solveig’s Song Solberg (also Sissel)*
• Holmes Insomnia*
• Irish Dance Group – Irish Step Dancing (percussive feet!)
• Joplin The Entertainer Vinheteiro
• Korngold Marietta’s Lied Fleming
• Mahler Adagietto Elisabeth Plank
• Marching bands East Tyrol (ditto South Tyrol—just two of a number of websites with oompah music by Austrian bandsmen and women in traditional costumes)
• Mendelssohn Italian Symphony 2^nd Movement Masur
• Mozart Quintet K515 Delft (1^st movement worth a try)
• Mozart Symphony No 39 Menuetto Slobodeniouk (18:24 minutes in)
• Mozart Turkish March Gould*
• Purcell Cold Song Montanari (Cupid awakens the frozen Genius of Iceland. This version has subtitles, and try Balfour for its costume and the Boston Purcell Society’s version)
• Purcell Queen Mary Funeral March Baroque Brass of London
• Prokofiev Dance of the Girls with Lilies Palo Alto
• Ravel Bolero Orquesta Joven Alberola* (unmissable!)
• Reich Drumming (various versions probably available)
• Reich Music for Mallet Instruments (ditto)
• Satie Gnossienne No. 1 Santos* (sound only)
• Scarborough Fair Baldys and Lorek  
• Schubert Ave Maria Katy Manilla (surprisingly good I think)
• Schubert Marche Militaire No. 1 Nguyen
• Schubert Standchen Thomas Berrut
• Schubert 9^th Symphony 2^nd Movement Dresdner Poppen
• Schubert Trio Opus 100 Andante Trio Wanderer*
• Schubert Quintet D956 Adagio Emerson
• Shostakovich Second Waltz Carion Wind Quintet*
• Sousa Stars and Stripes Riverside King High School*
• Stevens Rhythmic Caprice Glennie (Evelyn Glennie is profoundly deaf but says she “feels” music in different parts of her body.)
• Strauss Morgen Renée Fleming
• Toshimitsu (Tanaka) Two Movements for Marimba Videnov
• Traditional Greek Music Sirtaki and Bouzouki Instrumental
• Vaughan Williams Songs of Travel Shirley-Quirk (sound only)
• Villa-Lobos Bachianas Brasilieras No. 5 Aria Bidu Sayao (sound only but you can find videos of this remarkable piece for solo voice and eight cellos, maybe some with subtitles)

(^_^)