Spoken Sheet Music

As a result of Paul Houdijk’s visual handicap, he as an organist uses so-called ‘spoken sheet music’. This is a facility that is offered by the ‘Study and Profession’ department from the “Dedicon” organisation (which is the former Federation of Dutch Libraries for the blind) at Amsterdam. Books and magazines are since many years voice-recorded, in the past on audiotape and more recently on digital sound media.

This should also be possible for sheet music, was Paul’s thought, and he spoke about his idea with the former Study and Profession Library in Amsterdam. In this way he was he was part of the beginning of a new, for blind musicians, very interesting feature which during the nineties came to full development.

The score is read in fragments, and with the help of a computer, played as well. On this basis, the musician will learn to play from his memory. Studying the music by heart is not a real problem according to Paul Houdijk. It is true that the repertoire might be limited to some extent, but on the other hand a score will be studied more thoroughly, which benefits the ultimate performance. Just a quick and superficial unprepared playing from the sheet is not possible. Because as an organist he is less suited to be a handy accompanist for choirs, Paul Houdijk limits himself to mainly solo playing and accompanying hymns which are sung by the congregation.

For more information on this subject see the radiobroadcast 'Blinde Noten' of program maker Henk Burger.