Poetry and Musicophobia single work   essay  
Issue Details: First known date: 2019... 2019 Poetry and Musicophobia
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'Tone deafness, or to use its more technical term, “congenital amusia,” is not an illusion, though some teachers of singing have optimistically claimed that it is. It is true that most people can sing and that some people who sing badly nevertheless hear music very well. The Collins Concise Dictionary (Australian edition) gives as the definition of tone deafness: “unable to distinguish subtle differences in musical pitch.” A scientific study in the Science Daily (August 2007) has estimated that about one in twenty of the population has this condition, which should not be confused with ordinary deafness or progressive loss of hearing like that which affected the Australian poets and writers, Henry Lawson and Judith Wright. Henry Lawson had completely lost his hearing by the age of fourteen as the result of a childhood ear infection and Judith Wright progressively lost her hearing as an adult and became totally deaf in her seventies. Like the composer Beethoven, who continued to compose after losing his hearing, their perception of musical pitch was unaffected. Amusics, or those with tone deafness, have a perceptual problem. They are unable to distinguish differences in pitch or even in some cases to follow the simplest musical tunes. It is my contention that, while many, perhaps most, poets are drawn to poetry through an initial love of music or song, some of the greatest are deaf to musical pitch and are drawn primarily through the musicality of language.' (Introduction)

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    y separately published work icon Southerly Southerly 80! vol. 79 no. 1 2019 18439965 2019 periodical issue

    'Southerly has turned 80! Founded in 1939, Southerly has been published continuously for fully four score years. This is a cause for great celebration; we salute the many, many writers whose poetry, fiction, essays and reviews Southerly has published, often providing new writers with their first foray into publication. In their submissions of work for this issue, many writers recall the significance of these first works, some dating from 50 and 60 years ago.

     

    'Alongside literary stalwarts, and in keeping with Southerly‘s committed practice, new writers reflect the matrices of contemporary Australia’s peoples and literatures. Juxtapositions of this kind are at the heart of Southerly‘s project and span the spectrum of writing across creative and critical modes.

     

    'Southerly also salutes the generations of readers who have engaged with this enterprise, the many who continue to access Southerly‘s formidable archive from 1939, and our current readership.' (Editorial)

    2019
    pg. 152-163
Last amended 13 Dec 2019 12:10:53
152-163 Poetry and Musicophobiasmall AustLit logo Southerly
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