This blog celebrates Karen Gearreald, one of the most dedicated and influential braille music specialists and educators of our time. I had the honor of interviewing Karen, who has trained and certified countless braille music transcribers over the years. In addition to her teaching, she co-edited the third edition of Mary de Garmo’s Introduction to Braille Music Transcription and contributed its foreword. A lawyer by profession and holder of a doctorate in English, Karen Gearreald brings both intellectual rigor and deep compassion to her work. NLS and the broader braille music community are deeply grateful for her decades of service, leadership and mentorship.
Q: Throughout your years of teaching and certifying braille music transcribers, are there any moments or teaching experiences that particularly stood out to you, times when you felt especially proud or moved by the work?
A: Countless times, throughout my 23 years of teaching the braille music transcription course, I have been thrilled by the students’ talents, abilities, versatility, generosity, and thoughtfulness. Again and again, these transcribers have met and surpassed the highest standards. Besides continuing to function as outstanding performers and teachers, these transcribers have publicly excelled by fulfilling leadership roles in the braille world, by brailling all kinds of music for individuals and for NLS, and by devising notation for transcription challenges from tablature to Broadway musicals to contemporary piano music. Just as significant are the private achievements of persevering through personal difficulties, discerning the nuances of intricate lessons, and suddenly making huge strides in accuracy and comprehension. As a teacher, I was happy to stand by and encourage; but the real credit belongs to the students.
Q: What was one of the most complex or unusual pieces of music you ever transcribed or reviewed, and what did it teach you about the art of braille music transcription?
A: For the past seven years, as NLS continues to digitize the music collection, I have had the privilege of helping to verify the accuracy of the scans. Character by character, an embossed copy of the scanned file is compared with a hard copy of the original transcription. Some of these scores were transcribed by individuals in the pre-computer era; other scores were published by the American Printing House for the Blind 80 to a 100 years ago. Besides verifying the accuracy of the scans, we add explanations of unusual formats or symbols so that today’s braille reader can understand the details of the music.
In working on the scanned files, I encountered BRM24578, the incredibly complex seventh piano sonata by Scriabin. I still marvel at the transcriber’s skill and dedication, as well as the musicianship and determination of any braille reader who memorizes and performs such thorny music. At the same time, I realize that there are immense challenges in any transcription exercise or braille music score, no matter how elementary the item might seem to be. From the very beginning (the key signature, the time signature, and the first octave mark), neither the transcriber nor the braille reader can afford a lapse in attention or accuracy.
Q: How has braille music changed since you first learned it, and what changes have you found most exciting or most challenging?
A: As a child in the 1950s, I felt that braille music was hard to find, hard to decipher, and hard to execute. Why was braille music so inaccessible, I wondered, when I could so easily read literary braille (not to mention gleefully playing tunes on the piano by ear)? Learning to love braille music was a long process.
The first positive step occurred in the early 1960s while I was learning to play a growing number of popular music standards. When I discovered the Canadian melody-chord system, I purchased a subscription to the new titles, which were delivered to me once a week. At about the same time the NLS Music Section was established so that, suddenly, braille music for instruction and performance was no longer hard to find. Today, of course, we have wonderful, readily available instructional materials in braille and audio formats; thus, braille music is not nearly so mysterious as it was in the 1950s.
And how splendidly transformative the computer has proved to be for all of us in the sphere of braille music! Through BARD and other archives, we can instantaneously download and duplicate what we need without waiting for weeks or months to obtain a precious single copy. For new transcriptions, the computer enables us to correct, disseminate, and multiply the music in ways that were unimaginable just a few years ago. Furthermore, e-mail has vastly enhanced the teaching of braille music transcription. Receiving the lesson exercises as attachments, I could often respond within a day or just a few hours, while the lesson was still fresh in the student’s mind. I also like the idea of checking YouTube so that I can hear an expert (or a struggling amateur) perform a piece which I might eventually want to learn to play or sing through braille. Listening to a performance can be the braille reader’s equivalent of sight reading an unfamiliar score.
Q: You’ve been called a Renaissance woman, and rightly so. How have your other interests (in poetry, law, languages, etc.) shaped your approach to music and teaching braille?
A: I like to think in terms of enrichment rather than compartmentalization. The more we know and experience many things, the more empathetic we can be as teachers and as performers. One of my favorite teachers said that whenever we sing a song, the performance includes everything that we have ever associated with it. The same teacher encouraged me to develop images to enrich the situation. So sometimes while singing a song, I may envision myself as standing in a friendly swimming pool of warm water (if I concentrate, I can even smell the chlorine). At other times, when I become discouraged by a difficult passage in the piano music of Mozart or Beethoven or Brahms, I think of the baseball player who routinely takes batting practice and steps up to the plate—even though he knows that a strikeout or groundout is far more likely than a booming home run.
Q: As you retire from this official role, what do you hope the next generation of music transcribers and educators will carry forward from your work and legacy?
A: As transcribers and teachers and performers and listeners, we recognize that music—and the ability to enjoy it—are gifts from God. Music is not necessary for our physical survival, but how barren our world would be without the blessings of music! Besides appreciating these blessings individually, let us share them as graciously and generously as we can. I am ever grateful that Louis Braille devised the braille music code and that we have the privileges of treasuring it, perpetuating it, and—if need be—fighting for it. Even on the toughest days, let us cherish braille music as a source of strength and happiness.
Q: Thank you, Karen, for taking the time to speak with us, and above all, thank you for everything you have done to expand access to braille music and to support generations of transcribers. We wish you all the very best for your well-deserved retirement.
For our readers, please also consider reading the 2018 blog interview here:
If you want to learn more about the NLS Music Section, please feel free to reach out and call us at 1-800-424-8567, ext. 2 or email us at [email protected].
If you are interested in learning more about the Library of Congress’ certificate program for braille music transcription, check out the following link: Braille Certification Program.