Although for some of you reading this now, it is already January 5, I am
taking a few minutes at the end of a long day to remember Louis Braille on
the 208TH anniversary of his birth. The occasion of his birthday inspired
me to share a bit from an article I composed in late 2008 about our
Professor Braille and his code. I wrote it in anticipation of the
celebration of the bicentenary of his birth. I believe it was first
published in the January, 2009, issue of a periodical called The Educator, a
quarterly journal from the International Council for the Education of the
Visually Impaired (ICEVI).
The week I spent in Paris in early January, 2009, was simply one of the
highlights of my life. Representatives from dozens of countries met at
UNESCO for three days of presentations on braille. I was honored to have
been asked to present on Braille's code for music. Perhaps the greatest
highlight of the week was our visit to the Louis Braille home in Coupvray.
There I was able to write
"Merci, Louis"
Using a braille slate that he once used. Actually, these memories remind me
of another article which I wrote about that week that I should share some
other time. My visit to the Braille home was made even more special because
my friend, Joe Sullivan, creator of the Duxbury Braille Translator,
accompanied me there. In all of his years of travel to France, Mr. Sullivan
had never been to Coupvray before.
I hope you enjoy reading my brief article about Louis Braille and his
ingenious code for music. Please pass it on as appropriate. You may
download the entire article from the link below. If you do re-publish it,
please do so in its entirety with attribution to its author:
.
Braille: The Man and His Code for Music
By William R. McCann
The song is ended,
But the melody lingers on.
You and the song are gone,
But the melody lingers on.
These words of Irving Berlin were written about bringing an old love to
mind. But we can apply them aptly to the important work of a genuine hero
of the blind, Le Professeur Louis Braille. As we approach the bicentenary
of his birth, it is a fitting time to pay homage to his memory and to his
enduring legacy.
It is my privilege and my aim in this article to acquaint the reader with an
aspect of Braille's work that too often has been overlooked. I try to give
a relatively nontechnical description of his system for music notation and
propose that it is still relevant in our time.
The Man Himself
.
Full text of the article at:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/26996884/Braille%20and%20His%20Music%20C
ode.doc
Happy Louis Braille Day!
Bill McCann
Founder and President
Dancing Dots
www.DancingDots.com
www.facebook.com/DancingDotsMusic
