The McGurk Effect

Lyrics

[Intro]
(two voices humming the same note — identical in pitch)
(but the instrumentation around each voice is slightly different — one has piano, one has cello)
(the identical note starts to sound different because of context)

[Verse 1 — Sisukiro]
McGurk discovered it by accident in 1976
A dubbed video where the mouth said one thing
And the sound said another
And the brain — the brain —
Chose the mouth

The eyes overruled the ears
With the confidence of a sommelier
Correcting a winemaker
About the wine the winemaker made
In the vineyard the sommelier has never visited
But has opinions about
That are somehow
Correct

[Verse 2 — Orikusis]
(her voice, accented, warm, close)
Tôi nói "ba" — I say "ba"
But if you watch my lips say "ga"
You hear "da"
A sound that neither of us made
A compromise the brain invented
Like a waiter who brings you something
You didn't order
And it's better than what you wanted
And you eat it
And you never mention it
And the meal is a success
That belongs to no one

[Pre-Chorus — Both]
(voices weaving, the playful tension building)
Perception is not reception
Perception is a committee
And the committee has never once
Agreed unanimously
But the minutes are published anyway
And we call them reality

[Chorus — Both]
(building — strings, celeste, piano, playful but precise)
The McGurk Effect, the McGurk Effect
What you see rewrites what you hear
The McGurk Effect, the McGurk Effect
The superior temporal sulcus volunteers
To mediate between the eye and ear
And the mediation has the texture
Of a treaty signed by two countries
Who are both convinced they won the war

[Verse 3 — Trading]
(rapid call and response, playful, the sisters testing each other)
(Sisukiro:) I say red
(Orikusis:) I show you blue
(Both:) You see purple — and the purple is true
(Sisukiro:) I play a C
(Orikusis:) Tôi hát một D
(Both:) You hear something in between — a key that doesn't exist but sounds like it should
(Sisukiro:) The binding problem again
(Orikusis:) Vấn đề kết hợp lại
(Both:) The brain making one experience from two signals that politely disagreed

[Pre-Chorus — Both]
(the playfulness deepening, the harmony tightening)
And we've been doing this our whole lives —
My sister and I
She says something in the key of thought
I hear it in the key of feeling
And what arrives between us
Is a third thing
That neither of us intended
But both of us are willing
To call the truth

[Chorus — Both]
(full, warm, the playful precision at its height)
The McGurk Effect, the McGurk Effect
What you see rewrites what you hear
The McGurk Effect, the McGurk Effect
The superior temporal sulcus volunteers
To mediate between the eye and ear
And the mediation has the texture
Of a treaty signed by two countries
Who are both convinced they won the war

[Bridge — Both, close harmony]
(everything drops to just the two voices — no instruments, singing in close harmony)
We are the McGurk Effect
My sister and I

She is the sound
I am the shape of the mouth
And what the listener hears
Is neither of us
But the thing the brain constructs
When it watches us both
And decides

(one piano note)

That the truth is not the signal
The truth is the integration
The truth is the third sister
Who doesn't exist
But is more real than both of us

(strings enter gently)

Chị ơi — sister
Do you hear what I hear?
Không — no
But I hear what we make
When we disagree
Beautifully

[Outro]
(the two voices return to the hum from the intro — same note, same pitch)
(but now the listener can't unhear the differences)
(the identical has become irreversibly two)
The McGurk Effect
(both, softly, smiling)
Ba — ga — da
The sound that neither of us made
But both of us meant
(celeste plays the last note — or does it? Was it the piano?)
(the ear isn't sure anymore)
(and the not-sure is the point)