The Dublin Deaf Choir appears on television this weekend – but how do they perform?
THEY ARE ONE of Dublin’s longest-running choirs, available for weddings, funerals and the occasional international festival. Founded almost 30 years ago, their repertoire includes religious and modern classics from Christmas carols to hymns and modern love ballads. Just like any regular voluntary choral group then, but with one exception – all the participants are members of the deaf community.
This Sunday, "Deaf Factor" – Ireland's first televised talent competition for the deaf community – reaches its conclusion on RTÉ1 and features the choir performing Brendan Graham's song You Raise Me Up.
Choir director Pamela McDonald first came across members of the choir during a folk music weekend, when she noticed some of the class were signing songs. “I thought it was a fantastic way to portray the music, like looking at a ballet group when you see all these people signing together,” she says, “So I started to learn sign language, and the person who was leading the choir was giving it up and I was asked to do it. I’m still doing it over 25 years later.”
Frequently, the choir will accompany musical performances and interpret the music being sung or played, such as at weddings or in concert settings. They have performed in many illustrious venues ranging from St Peter’s Church in Rome to the National Concert Hall in Dublin. “At some performances, we are there to translate the words into sign,” explains McDonald. “So, for example, if we are at a wedding, a deaf person can follow the wedding songs. For someone who doesn’t understand sign language, it is easy and pleasing to follow these beautiful signs.” During performances on their own, the choir usually has a CD player or a singer present, unless they are performing to a solely deaf audience.
So does signing in a choir situation differ from normal signing? “Well yes,” says McDonald. “For one thing, if we want the audience to see the signs, then often we sign much larger than we would in conversation. Sometimes we would exaggerate the sign, for example a sign for the word ‘angel’ might be a rather exaggerated sign. It’s the same way I suppose in that there are differences between talking and signing – we try to portray and get across the tempo or feeling of the music.”
Choir member Jean O’Reilly agrees. “To sign in a deaf choir is very different to normal sign, as we sign slow according to the song and to go with the flow of music. We do change some signs to suit the deaf language,” she says.
McDonald says the choir is very much in demand for weddings, and when she got married she asked the choir to perform. “It’s a very beautiful thing to watch. At my wedding, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house, and it was quite lovely to look at all these synchronised movements. They have a way of getting the emotion of a song across that adds another dimension to the music.”
The Dublin Deaf Choir performs on Saturday January 30th at 7.30pm in the National Chaplaincy for Deaf People in Drumcondra, Dublin. Hands On is broadcast this Sunday at 12.55pm on RTÉ1.
