Abstract
This essay analyzes the historical development of otology in relation to music. It illustrates the integral role of music perception and appreciation in the study of hearing, where hearing operates not simply as a scientific phenomenon but signifies particular meaningful experiences in society. The four historical moments considered—Helmholtz’s piano-keyed cochlea, the ear phonautograph, the hearing aid, and the cochlear implant—show how the sounds, perceptions, and instruments of music have mediated and continue to mediate our relationships with hearing. To have an ear, one does not just bear a physiological hearing mechanism; one experiences the aesthetics of musical sound.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ballatyne, John C., Edward F. Evans, and Andrew W. Morrison. 1978. “Electrical Auditory Stimulation in the Management of Profound Hearing Loss.” Supplement. The Journal of Laryngology and Otology 92 (S1).
Bell, Alexander Graham. 1906. “Vowel Theories.” In Lectures upon the Mechanism of Speech, 117–129. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Co.
Berry, Gordon. 1939. “The Use and Effectiveness of Hearing Aids.” The Laryngoscope 49:912–942.
Brennan, Ward R., and J T. Rubinstein. 2008. “Music Perception in Cochlear Implant Users and its Relationship with Psychophysical Capabilities.” Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development 45 (5): 779–89.
Chorost, Michael. 2005. “My Bionic Quest for Bolero.” Wired 13 (11), 1–4. Accessed February 8, 2013. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.11/bolero.html.
Hartig, Henry E., and Horace Newhart. 1939. “Performance Characteristics of Electrical Hearing Aids for the Deaf.” Archives of Otolaryngology 23 (6): 617–32.
Helmholtz, Hermann von. 1995. “On the Physiological Causes of Harmony in Music.” In Science and Culture: Popular and Philosophical Essays, translated by David Cahan, 46–75. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lamb, Charles. 1860. “A Chapter on Ears.” In Essays of Elia, 69–75. Boston: W. Veazie.
Luis Lassaletta, et al. 2007. “Does Music Perception Have an Impact on Quality of Life Following Cochlear Implantation?” Acta Oto-Laryngologica 127: 682–86.
Pickering, Andrew. 2008. “Preface.” In The Mangle in Practice: Science, Society, and Becoming, edited by Andrew Pickering and Keith Guzik, vii–xiv. Durham: Duke University Press.
Prescott, George Bartlett. 1884. Bell’s Electric Speaking Telephone: Its Invention, Construction, Application, Modification and History. New York: D. Appleton & Co.
“Report of a Committee on the New Method of Instruction for Deaf-Mutes, December, 1871.” 1872. In Establishment for the Study of Vocal Physiology: for the Correction of Stammering and other Defects of Utterance; and for Practical Instruction in “Visible Speech,” by Alexander Graham Bell, 6–8. Boston: Rand, Avery, & Co.
Sterne, Jonathan. 2003. The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction. Durham: Duke University Press.
---. 2001. “A Machine to Hear for Them: On the Very Possibility of Sound’s Reproduction.” Cultural Studies 15 (2): 259–94.
University of Washington. 2001. “Brains of Deaf People Rewire to ‘Hear’ Music.” Science Daily. Accessed February 10, 2013. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011128035455.htm.
Zielinski, Siegfried. 2008. Deep Time of the Media: Toward and Archaeology of Hearing and Seeing by Technical Means. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sattar, A. To Have an Ear: Music and the Otological Experience. J Med Humanit 37, 289–298 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-014-9290-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-014-9290-8