Abstract
This paper reports a comparison of the formant patterns of speech and singing. Measurements of the first three formants were made on the stable portion of the vowels. The main finding of the study is an acoustic effect that can be described as the matching of the vowel formants to the harmonics of the sung note (A flat, 420 Hz). For example, for the vowel [a], F1 generally matched with the second harmonic (840 Hz) and F2 with the third harmonic. This finding is complementary to that of Sundberg (1977) according to which the higher the fundamental frequency of the musical note, e.g., 700 Hz, the more the mandible is lowered causing the elevation of the first formant of the sung vowel. As Sundberg himself named this phenomenon, there is a matching between the first formant and the phonation frequency, causing an increase in the sound energy. The present study establishes that the matching affects not only F1 but also F2 and F3. This finding will be discussed in connection with other manoeuvres (e.g., tongue movements) used by singers.
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