Low Voices Research Articles

Elektroakustischer Stimmverst�rker f�r Oesophagusersatzsprache und Phonastheniker

A portable electroacoustic amplifier is described. By means of electric filters the intellegibility of low voices and of voices hardly understandible due to the distribution of their frequencies is improved. The engineering ist outlined and possibilities and limitations of its use are dicussed based on frequency analysis of different speakers with and without apparatus.

A tuneable amplifier for the recording of insect voices

A selective amplifier working by feed-back mechanism and permitting a recording of low insect voices in a noisy environment is described. Rhythmic components of the songs remaine unchanged, the recorded frequency is clearly defined, and frequency spectra may be recorded successively.

THE FUNCTION OF CONFLICTING SIGNATURES IN EARLY POLYPHONIC MUSIC

CONFLICTING SIGNATURES and partial are terms applied' to the use of different key signatures in the different voices of a single polyphonic composition. The use of conflicting signatures persisted from the 3th century to the I6th. In three-part pieces the lowest voice often has a signature of one flat, while the two upper voices have no signature at all; sometimes both lower voices have a signature of one flat, while only the discant is without signature. Occasionally the lowest voice or the two lower voices have two flats in the signature while the discant has only one. The appearance of one more flat in the discant than in the lower voices is comparatively rare. What are the meaning and function of these conflicting signatures? Several theories have been offered. Rudolf Ficker2 thought the absence of a B-flat in the discant was meant to show that a Gregorian melody was entrusted to this part. Knud Jeppesen3 disposed of this hypothesis by pointing out that secular works making no use of Gregorian melodies often reveal the same peculiarity of notation as do ecclesiastical works based on the Chant. Jeppesen too suggested a theory, only, however, to discard it. The theory is that, since the discant was usually the only part provided with text, it was the only one meant to be sung and the well trained singer was left free to apply the needed accidentals to it while the simple, untrained minstrels who performed the instrumental lower parts had to be given specific instructions. But Jeppesen himself noted that different copies of a single piece, even when contained in closely related manuscripts, sometimes disagree in this aspect of notation and that this would not happen if the theory held water. He therefore concluded that

Selected Songs of Scotland. Parts 1-4. Arranged for Low Voices, with Accompaniments for Pianoforte

Selected Songs of Scotland. Parts 1-4. Arranged for Low Voices, with Accompaniments for Pianoforte