When Music is Sight to the Blind Man’s Eye

One summer day, I was with a circle of visually-impaired students at the Davao School for the Blind in Bago Aplaya, Talomo that was rehearsing for a concert-tour in Germany upon the invitation of Hildesheimer Blindenmission, the school’s major funding agency. Watching in awe at a group of boys and girls in their teens and early 20s, I stood motionless — envious at their musical prowess and their ability to perform much better than me or anyone of their sighted peers. That was a humbling experience.

The mood was festive in the entire school campus as the band played its repertoire that included boogie-woogie and salsa, to OPMs, Christmas carols and classic pieces like The Pink Panther and the all-time favorite Can’t Take My Eyes Off You all in perfect orchestration.

True to their own motto inscribed on a hanged piece of wood — That hands may learn to see — aye, each of them had their hands ably holding and playing their instruments — sax, trumpets, flutes and clarinets, drums and trombones, guitars and keyboards — as skillful and graceful as they could like lifting up their vision limitations to a higher realm of consciousness of the One Transcendent.

I associated the day’s experience to a widely-known sculptor, Auguste Rodin, who said, “there is something more that cannot be known; in every masterpiece has this quality of mystery.” The day ended in deep reflective thought; and St. John Paul II’s words followed through, resonating, “Every work of art can lead us to the Divine.”

The common belief that blind people often have an unusual knack for music is supported by research studies which suggest that musical talent and visual impairment are closely linked (Lucy Tobin, The Guardian, 18 May 2010). High profile blind musicians Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and Andrea Bocelli attest to this claim: “Wonder and Charles are arguably the most outstanding blind performers in the history of popular music both excelling as vocalists and multi-instrumentalists” (Vintage Voices, The Gleaner, September 19, 2019), and to use Picasso’s insight, “…as it is, is touched by God” (Pablo Picasso, the most famous artist of the 20th century) is stating it with sense of affirmation.

One Light Music Orchestra was the name given to the band; and I suppose, in naming it, these blind Davao musicians were in their moment of profound contemplation of the One Light Source illuminating in that “defining moment as they became open and receptive of their human creativity to the realm of the Transcendence in the context of their own setting and identity” (William J. Malley, S.T.D., Alethialogy The Four Zones of Truth and Vitality, Vol. 1) as differently-sighted ones.

Their own appreciation of the intrinsic worth of the art of music, and in their artistic formation upon discovery of their musical potentials have beautifully ushered them to their renewed visions of life, and of the reality. Their theme, “Turning Darkness into Light” every time they had shows and stage appearances may have been their active and strong statement of self-determination in light of their own setting and identity as individuals with handicap in vision, but where music has become their sight. (Cynthia Chu)