An acoustic and perceptual evaluation of four historic recordings of Chinese narrative singing

Abstract

This study is an acoustic and perceptual musicological evaluation of four recordings of vocal renditions from two schools of Chinese narrative singing that were differentiated by gender during the first half of the twentieth century. The analyses were based on four renditions of “At Break of Day” by Liu Baoquan (1869-1942) and Xiao Lanyun (1923-1992) of the “male school”, as well as Luo Yusheng (1914-2002) and Lu Yiqin (1933-) of the “female school.” The musicological analysis was based on transcriptions of the recordings, comparing melody, rhythm, ornamentation, and tonality. The acoustic analyses involved measures of central tendency and variability for duration and fundamental frequency (F0) using Praat acoustic analysis software. All four vocalists exhibited a similar mean F0, however differences in relative duration, F0 range, F0 variation, and F0 slope were found across singers at both the phrase and syllable level. Differences within schools of singing (male and female) and between instructor and student (i.e., Liu Baoquan and Xiao Lanyun) were also noted. These acoustic differences provide additional insights for ethnomusicologists that may be unattainable through traditional methods of perceptual analysis.