Singing Style Research Articles

Pimmalione: Rousseau and the Melodramatisation of Italian Opera

AbstractThis article traces the Italian reception of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Horace Coignet’sPygmalion(1770), ultimately arguing that the influence of early melodrama (and not the better-remembered Viennese reform) was behind the emergence of a style of speech-like singing and gestural mirroring in Italian opera in the decades immediately around 1800. Rousseauian melodrama was one of a few related projects subsuming the spoken word within the domain of music during the 1770s and 1780s; another was Joshua Steele’sProsodia rationalis, which proposed a system of modified music notation in order to preserve and transmit the spoken word. This article suggests (contra most recent historians of melodrama) that such projects were inflected by a kind of twilight classicism, in which the revived object was made to show signs of decay. The revivalist strain in the first melodrama was particularly important for its Italian reception. Rousseau’s ideal of an ancient, onomatopoeic language collapsing meaning and medium was naturalised into the rhetoric of Italian opera reform during the 1770s and 1780s by the Jesuit theorists Antonio Eximeno and Stefano Arteaga. By way of a coda, this article traces the emergence of a ‘melodramatic’ style of Italian opera, first in all-sung adaptations ofPygmalion, thence into Venetian opera of the 1790s more broadly, and finally into Donizetti’s techniques of gestural mirroring and what was called the ‘canto filosofico’ of Bellini’s early operas.

How a songbird with a continuous singing style modulates its song when territorially challenged.

In songbirds of the temperate zone, often only males sing and their songs serve to attract females and to deter territorial rivals. In many species, males vary certain aspects of their singing behavior when engaged in territorial interactions. Such variation may be an honest signal of the traits of the signaler, such as fighting strength, condition, or aggressive motivation, and may be used by receivers in decisions on whether to retreat or to escalate a fight. This has been studied intensively in species that sing discontinuously, in which songs are alternating with silent pauses. We studied contextual variation in the song of skylarks (Alauda arvensis), a songbird with a large vocal repertoire and a continuous and versatile singing style. We exposed subjects to simulated territorial intrusions by broadcasting conspecific song and recorded their vocal responses. We found that males sing differently if they are singing spontaneously with no other conspecific around than if they are territorially challenged. In this last case, males produced lower-frequency syllables. Furthermore, they increased the sound density of their song: they increased the proportion of sound within song. They seem to do so by singing different elements of their repertoire when singing reactively. Furthermore, they increased the consistency of mean peak frequency: they repeated syllable types with less variability when singing reactively. Such contextual variation suggests that skylarks might use low frequencies, sound density, and song consistency to indicate their competitive potential, and thus, those song features might be important for mutual assessment of competitive abilities.

REPRODUKSI LAGU KR. KEMAYORAN: KONSTRUKSI SUBJEKTIVITAS NYAK INA RASEUKI (UBIET)

This article shows the knowledge and cultural perception of an Indonesian woman singer, Nyak Ina Raseuki (Ubiet), that was achieved through her musical experiences in social life and constructed her singing style as her aesthetic mastery (connoisseur). Her singing style is used to reproduce songs from the variety of musical genres so that constructed her subjectivity in Indonesian popular music. One of the songs is analyzed in this article is Kr. Kemayoran, a song in the genre of keroncong. The research questions focus on 1) the construction of knowledge and cultural perception of Ubiet to construct her subjectivity, and 2) Ubiet’s way to explore Kr. Kemayoran so that showed the difference from others. This research used the life history method to understand Ubiet’s knowledge and cultural perception and the critical musicology to analyze the song. The research findings are the connoisseur is not depend only on formal education, but on the variety of musical practices in Ubiet’s life. Besides it, Ubiet’s subjectivity more focused on her musical competencies, i.e. her wide vocal range, the ability to explore many songs with microtones, local ornaments, as well as her ability to follow the development of meter and tonalilty (modulation) that are preceded by the music accompaniment. Keyword: subjectivity, connoisseur, knowledge, cultural perception

Fooling the experts: accurate vocal mimicry in the song of the superb lyrebird, Menura novaehollandiae

The degree of resemblance between mimics and models provides valuable insight into the evolutionary dynamics of mimicry signalling systems, but for many systems mimetic resemblance has not been quantified. Superb lyrebirds have a reputation for accurately imitating an astonishing variety of sounds that they incorporate into their sexual displays. We assessed the accuracy with which males imitate the complex song of the grey shrike-thrush, Colluricincla harmonica. We measured vocal accuracy by (1) using playback experiments as a bioassay, to determine whether and how shrike-thrushes distinguish between their own song and imitations of shrike-thrush songs by lyrebirds and (2) comparing acoustic properties of mimicked and model songs. Shrike-thrushes reacted just as strongly towards mimetic song as to their own when songs were presented alone. When mimetic song was accompanied by lyrebird song sequences (emulating the lyrebird's natural singing style), shrike-thrushes still usually approached the speaker but less often than when mimetic song was presented alone or when model songs were broadcast. Acoustic analyses showed that imitations were remarkably similar to model songs. However, while lyrebirds maintained the structure and complexity of model songs, they sang fewer repetitions of individual element types. This ‘abridging’ of model songs is consistent with a trade-off between demonstrating both mimetic accuracy and versatility. Overall, these results indicate strong selection on male lyrebirds to imitate accurately the complex vocalizations of other species, and show that species can integrate contextual information with the signal structure to distinguish between their own signals and imitations.

Abrupt register changing technique “Atari” in traditional Japanese singing

A rapid modal-falsetto-modal register changing technique “Atari” is widely found in various Japanese traditional singing styles, such as Nagauta, Okinawan traditional singing, and Japanese traditional folk singing “Min-Yo”. In other Asian singing styles, such as Urtin doo in Mongolia and similar styles in Tyva, and Sakha, consecutive rapid modal-falsetto register change is also widely used. In this study, a vocal fold vibratory pattern of “Atari” was observed by high-speed digital imaging. In “Atari”, the vocal fold vibration did not break and was very smoothly carried out modal-falsetto and falsetto-modal register changing. Acoustical characteristics along with modal-falsetto-modal register changing were also analyzed. In “Atari”, rapid changings of F0 and spectral tilt were observed. Based on these results, synthesis methods of “Atari” using STRAIGHT were proposed. By a listening test, it was clarified that “Atari” was effectively synthesized by changing only F0 without changing any spectral parameters.

Laryngeal vibratory behavior in traditional Noh singing

The phonation of Noh, a traditional Japanese style of singing, was investigated using electroglottographic and acoustical analyses. The dynamics of the laryngeal vibratory behaviors were analyzed for the singing voice of the Noh play compared with natural speech based on the electroglottography (EGG) parameters, EGG waveform, spectrum and spectrogram. The result shows that Noh singing is characterized by low OQegg and high SQegg. Three types of phonations are used in the singing with pressed, vocal-ventricular mode (VVM), and growl voices. It was hypothesized that the period doubling observed in the EGG signal was reflective of VVM, which was caused by the phase difference in the vocal and ventricular fold oscillations, while the damped peak amplitude in every other cycle in the EGG signal was the result of the oscillations of the aryepiglottic folds at a frequency of half of the fundamental frequency. Subharmonics generated by the supraglottal oscillations add unique timbre to the sounds. The results suggest that the combination of phonation types is the key factor in generating their peculiar voice qualities.

Influência da queixa e do estilo de canto na desvantagem vocal de cantores

The aim of this research was to verify whether the difference of singing styles and the presence of vocal complaints influence the perception of voice handicap of singers. One hundred eighteen singing voice handicap self-assessment protocols were selected: 17 popular singers with vocal complaints, 42 popular singers without complaints, 17 classic singers with complaints, and 42 classic singers without complaints. The groups were similar regarding age, gender and voice types. Both protocols used--Modern Singing Handicap Index (MSHI) and Classical Singing Handicap Index (CSHI)--have specific questions to their respective singing styles, and consist of 30 items equally divided into three subscales: disability (functional domain), handicap (emotional domain) and impairment (organic domain), answered according to the frequency of occurrence. Each subscale has a maximum of 40 points, and the total score is 120 points. The higher the score, the higher the singing voice handicap perceived. For statistical analysis, we used the ANOVA test, with 5% of significance. Classical and popular singers referred higher impairment, followed by disability and handicap. However, the degree of this perception varied according to the singing style and the presence of vocal complaints. The classical singers with vocal complaints showed higher voice handicap than popular singers with vocal complaints, while the classic singers without complaints reported lower handicap than popular singers without complaints. This evidences that classical singers have higher perception of their own voice, and that vocal disturbances in this group may cause greater voice handicap when compared to popular singers.

Voluntary Restraint of Body Movement Potentially Reduces Overall SPL Without Reducing SPL Range in Western Contemporary Popular Singing

Voluntary restriction of body movement is associated with the reduction of sound pressure level (SPL) peaks in western contemporary popular singing. This paper investigated whether overall SPL and SPL range are affected when singers voluntarily restrain their movement during performance. Six professional singers performed a section of a song in two performance modes: first with no constraints placed on their body behaviour and again when directed to stand still. Overall SPL and SPL range were compared for the two conditions. The calculation of percentiles revealed reductions in SPL in the no movement condition across all SPL levels for all singers. With respect to absolute range, contrary to expectation, the SPL minima were reduced by a degree equivalent to the reduction in SPL maxima in the majority of singers. To our knowledge, this phenomenon has not been noted previously, possibly because this compensatory effect disguises the overall reduction in SPL. This effect may be automatic and beyond the conscious control of singers. It remains to be studied whether this effect exists in other styles of singing and what aspect of movement restraint triggers this effect. Verbal directions curbing body movement may have detrimental effects on acoustic output even in experienced singers.

Digital Storytelling Book Generator with MIDI-to-Singing

Creating a digital storytelling book is an important knowledge source for the blinds, but it usually takes a lot of time and efforts. In order to read the books from electronic contents, automatic procedures could be incorporated into a speech synthesis system. In this paper, we give a practical description using a free software Text-to-speech (TTS) program with a MIDI-to-Singing toolkit as a digital storytelling book generator. In this case, a certain amount of emotional TTS customization can be derived by using time-pitch manipulation of the synthesized acoustic waveform. MIDI-to-Singing voices can be generated automatically with special emphasis on lyrical or storytelling-styled contents that are usually discouraged by uninteresting natures of voices synthesized from traditional Text-to-speech (TTS) programs. Rule-based approaches rely on rules that describe the behavior of the pitch frequency along time to generate time-pitch values. Pitch values fluctuate within a certain range depending on the intended emotion. This MIDI-to-Singing voice synthesis relies on mapping the pitch frequency values to the 12 semi-tonal melodic scales and extracting semi-tonic intervals for each emotional state. In the current version of the system, a user can style the synthesized voice by selecting either male or female standard voice in combination with one of the predefined 12 expressive styles: Neutral, Monotonic, Lowly-pitched, Highly-pitched, Rising-pitched, Falling-pitched, Happy, Sad, Fear, Anger, Randomly-pitched, and Melody-aligning (singing) styles using a small set of musical notes. A subjective test shows that synthetic conversations based on MIDI-to-Singing with customized styles are more preferable, natural, intelligible and enjoyable than the traditional ones. Finally, the result of digital talking recordings can be heard on the web-site for the comparisons between human speech and MIDI-to-Singing synthesized speech.

Quantitative voice quality analyses of a soprano singing early music in three different performance styles

This paper considers the measurement of voice quality variations relating to three different performance styles of early music singing by a trained soprano. In particular, the various outputs available following the collection of electrolaryngographic data are presented along with acoustic analyses based on the acoustic pressure waveform to enable a comparison of the three different singing styles. Voice quality analysis is based on the output from the electrolaryngograph, that enables a measurement of fundamental period to 1 μs accuracy to be made, enabling fundamental frequency variations including vibrato to be explored. In addition, the percentage of each cycle for which the vocal folds are in contact is measured and varies between the three voice qualities providing insights into the nature of vocal fold vibration in each case. Acoustic output spectral measures are made that are not only based on traditional wide- and narrow-band but also hearing modelling spectrography. These provide a clear indication as to which portions of the spectrum are most prominent in terms of perception of the three different voice qualities. A number of features resulting from the various analyses distinguish the singing styles, thereby providing evidence that the methods used are appropriate for objective characterisation and differentiation of singing styles in early music.

Turkestan chinois. Le Muqam des Dolan. Musique des Ouïgours du désert de Taklamakan (review)

Reviewed by: Turkestan chinois. Le Muqam des Dolan. Musique des Ouïgours du désert de Taklamakan Nathan Light (bio) Turkestan chinois. Le Muqam des Dolan. Musique des Ouïgours du désert de Taklamakan. (Chinese Turkestan. The Muqam of the Dolan. Music of the Uyghurs of Taklamakan Desert). Pierre Bois. Trans. Frank Kane and Mukaddas Mijit. Paris: INEDIT/Maison des Cultures du Monde, 2006. CD-ROM with liner notes in French and English. Dolan muqam music from Xinjiang, China, has gained some renown in recent years because it is one of the few suitelike musical forms that has not had to be revived from the moribund condition of other Uyghur muqam traditions. The performers are generally not educated, modernized, urban professionals, but have come in a steady stream from the same social and religious contexts as earlier performers. They are representative of traditional Central Asian performers because they are generally local community members who have spent their lives performing at large dance celebrations. Their heterophonic style of singing is a remarkable contrast to the mostly mono-melodic forms of other Uyghur music, both muqam and folk. Nonetheless, more questions exist about Dolan lives and musical repertoires than answers. The Dolan are agriculturalists and herders who live primarily in the area around Mäkit and Maralbashi, two communities roughly 200 kilometers east of Kashgar and somewhat distant from each other (Svanberg 1996). There is not much ethnographic research on the Dolan and probably will not be more until Chinese officials change their attitudes toward rural research in Xinjiang. China’s much-touted openness to international researchers has not affected Xinjiang and no foreigners are allowed to do substantial projects outside of major urban areas. A few people have been able to travel and document the music cultures of the Dolan, with the much-lamented ethnomusicologist Zhou Ji (1943–2008) being one of the most successful, but his works have been published only in Chinese and Uyghur. He is heavily referenced by both Sabine Trebinjac (2000) and Rachel Harris (2008), as well as in my own work (Light 2008), but only the first two briefly consider the Dolan muqam repertoire. The recording under review was made as part of Dolan Muqam performances in Paris by six traditional performers from the Dolan community. Brief details about the lives of the performers are given in the liner notes, and they also show up in Harris’s book albeit with differences in the transliteration of their names: [End Page 140] Huseyn Yahya performing on the CD is Husayn Yakhya, and Ahat Tohti on the CD is Häkhät Tokhti (Harris 2008, 116). On this CD, the performers sing what could be described as both religious and love songs, but the liner notes describe them only as love songs. Nonetheless, the translations preserve much of the allegorical love imagery that reflects the devotion to God that appears in Sufi poetry and dervish singing from many parts of Central Asia. Although the heterophonic singing makes the original song texts difficult to decipher, the religious content in some cases is also clear from the repetition of the refrain “Ah Allah.” Some Dolan performers also know pieces from the tradition known as the Twelve Muqams (Harris 2008, 120–3), the large sequence of suites that has been the subject of standardization and canonization for more than 50 years and has recently succeeded in being declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2005. Except for some similar instruments, vocal style, and verse, the Dolan muqam suites are musically quite distinct from the Twelve Muqams. We cannot even say for sure that the term muqam was traditional for this repertoire among the Dolan. The liner notes on the present recording say, “traditionalists consider the term muqam too scholarly, and prefer to use the word bayawan (literally, desert).” This would appear to mean roughly, “scholars and politicians have come and wish to incorporate this tradition into the expanding muqam framework as a further demonstration of the richness of Uyghur tradition,” an interpretation readily supported by observing recent changes in muqam performances over the past 20 years (Harris 2008). As Trebinjac (2000, 260–6...

Interpretation of the acoustical analysis of the timbre of Chinese national singing: Female example.

ABSTRACT - This study analyzed the female voice in Chinese National Singing from the perspective of music acoustics. By using music acoustic methodology, we collected, compared, and analyzed the sounds of female Chinese National Singing and bel canto. Comparison of the power spectrum and singer's formant led to conclusions respectively for the characteristics of power spectra of four kinds of voices with different timbre. Our experimental results show that the female voice of Chinese National Singing and bel canto share some characteristics of their formants in terms of peak heights, peak widths, and frequency domains. KEYWORDS - Chinese National Singing, timbre, singer's formant, music acoustics (ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) Translated from the Chinese1 by Bing-Yi Pan From the perspective of musical acoustics, the human vocal organ can be considered as a music instrument, and it can be studied by using methods of music acoustics, because it contains the same acoustic components: vibrator, exciter, resonator, and controller, as do all other music instruments. We chose the female voice of Chinese National Singing as the target of this research. We analyzed and compared the power spectra and singer's formant of the female voice of four different styles of singing. TERMINOLOGY In order to avoid controversy, we will first define the key terminologies used in this article. They are: Chinese National Singing, timbre, and singer's formant. Chinese National Singing There are two definitions for Chinese National Singing, the general one and the specific one. The General Chinese National Singing includes traditional Chinese operas; Chinese story-telling music; folk music of all local operas developed by different nationalities across China; as well as the new singing styles created and developed under the New Music Movement, which is a professional singing method combining both the Western systematic training methods and Chinese traditional music styles. The Specific Chinese National Singing designates the singing styles developed by the New Music Movement during the twentieth century. By accepting elements from European singing, this singing style arose from the synthesis of the Chinese traditional singing and bel canto. In its even narrower sense, the Specific Chinese National Singing also refers to common singing methods being used for training of singing and professional music education in Chinese music colleges. Timbre The given definition for timbre in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 6th Edition, is: Timbre is a term that describes the tonal quality of a sound; a clarinet and an oboe sounding the same note are said to produce different timbres. It is usually reserved for descriptions of steady notes and therefore the physical quantity with which it is closely associated is the harmonic mixture, or the formant, or the spectrum. (Sadie, 1980, p. 823) Timbre perception by the human auditory system arises mainly via analyzing the harmonic distribution of the onset and the steady state of the tone. Differences of timbre mainly depend upon the number of harmonics and their relative intensities. The material and structure of a musical instrument as well as the manner of performing determine the distribution of harmonics. Even when playing the same instrument, artists can control the distribution of harmonics by using different registers or dynamics. For singers, when singing in different vocal register or dynamics, the oscillating mode of the vocal folds and the status of resonators will also be different. They are the elements that directly influence the distribution of harmonics. Both subjective and objective factors affect the sense of timbre. Subjective factors include contrasting elements, individual differences and national or cultural or traditional preferences. Objective factors include harmonic distribution of both the onset and steady state of the tone. …

Some Phonatory and Resonatory Characteristics of the Rock, Pop, Soul, and Swedish Dance Band Styles of Singing

This investigation aims at describing voice function of four nonclassical styles of singing, Rock, Pop, Soul, and Swedish Dance Band. A male singer, professionally experienced in performing in these genres, sang representative tunes, both with their original lyrics and on the syllable /pae/. In addition, he sang tones in a triad pattern ranging from the pitch Bb2 to the pitch C4 on the syllable /pae/ in pressed and neutral phonation. An expert panel was successful in classifying the samples, thus suggesting that the samples were representative of the various styles. Subglottal pressure was estimated from oral pressure during the occlusion for the consonant [p]. Flow glottograms were obtained from inverse filtering. The four lowest formant frequencies differed between the styles. The mean of the subglottal pressure and the mean of the normalized amplitude quotient (NAQ), that is, the ratio between the flow pulse amplitude and the product of period and maximum flow declination rate, were plotted against the mean of fundamental frequency. In these graphs, Rock and Swedish Dance Band assumed opposite extreme positions with respect to subglottal pressure and mean phonation frequency, whereas the mean NAQ values differed less between the styles.

Laryngeal Dynamics of Pedagogical Taan Gestures in Indian Classical Singing

Vocal modulations characterize many styles of singing. Vibrato, trill, and trillo are some of the ornaments that Western classical singers use. Likewise, taan is one of the basic frequency modulations demonstrated by Hindustani Indian classical singers. The objective of this descriptive study was to discover the F₀ contour of taan; establish selected acoustic, aerodynamic, and glottographic characteristics of the taan gesture; and explore the pedagogical taan utterances demonstrated by a well-known singer and teacher. Exploratory. Fundamental frequency, alternating current (AC) glottal flow, and electroglottographic width measures were obtained for taan productions by the classical Indian singer and teacher who demonstrated taan rate variations based on his pedagogical approach. The structure of the taan gesture was found to be an F₀ lowering and rising (the "taan dip") followed by a relatively flat portion (the "taan superior surface"). Rate of the F₀ structure of the taan gestures ranged from approximately 1.65 to 3.41Hz, and the F₀ extent ranged from 1.87 to 2.21semitone (ST). As the rate of the taan gesture increased, the superior surface shortened, whereas the taan dip stayed relatively constant (ranging from 170 to 230 ms). AC flow was greater for the lowest frequencies of the dip and faster rates. The pedagogical taan gesture has a specific structure of an F₀ dip followed by a relatively flat F₀ portion that shortens as taan rate increases. The F₀ dip and extent are relatively robust across rate. The taan productions are voluntarily controlled, in contrast to vibrato productions.

Correlates of the Belt Voice: A Broader Examination

The purpose of the present study was to further clarify a definition of belting in physiological and acoustic terms. Twenty professional female singers produced triads ascending by halftone steps from C₄ to C₅ and sang the last four measures of a popular Broadway ballad in both legit and belt styles. Vocal source differences between belt and legit singing modes were assessed with respect to closed quotient (CQ) and speed quotient (SQ) computed from the electroglottographic waveform during productions of /ma/ triads covering approximately one octave. Differences in supraglottal configuration were evaluated in terms of the ratio (dB) of the amplitudes of the first and second harmonics of /I/ sustained at the pitch A₅(b), as noted in the long-term average spectrum. CQ did not vary significantly as a function of the singing type. SQ, however, decreased monotonically in association with increasing pitch level in both legit and belt singing styles. Belt mode phonations had higher SQ's than those of legit mode phonations at the same pitch. A repeated-measures analysis of variance demonstrated that the data differences associated with both pitch level and with singing mode were significant beyond P < 0.01. Analysis of the relative magnitude of the first and second harmonics showed that the direction of the harmonic ratio varied between styles. In legit singing style, H₁ was always stronger than H₂, but this unidirectionality of amplitude was not characteristic of belt singing, for which the second harmonic had greater amplitude in 25% of the cases. Implications of these results are discussed with regard to a new definition of belting.

A preliminary investigation into the association between body movement patterns and dynamic variation in western contemporary popular singing

This study assessed the presence of body movements that may be common to all western contemporary popular (WCP) singers that may be integral to both the physical production of the sung sound and to acoustic output, in this case sound pressure level variation. Since torso movement appears to be closely linked with dynamic variation in this style of singing, the study focused on the activity of the torso. 3-D video footage of the body movements of six professional WCP singers singing the same R &amp; B song was collected. Antero-posterior (AP) torso movement direction frequency and characteristics at the point of maximum sustained SPL and fO (peak note) on the vowel /ε/ were analysed. The most common movement of the torso was in a posterior direction, reaching its point of maximum displacement from the starting position on the peak note. Strong anterior torso movement on the peak note, which took the torso forward of its anatomical position was associated with the head forward position and vocal distortion, indicating that this movement at a point of high SPL may present a vocal health risk. These results indicate that the AP torso movement of WCP singers has a function in voice production and that not only body posture but the manner of movement from one body position to another is significant to vocal health and sound production, especially in styles where high sound levels must be achieved and where a high level of body movement is required in performance.

Closed Quotient and Spectral Measures of Female Adolescent Singers in Different Singing Styles

Although quantifiable assessment of the singing voice is now commonplace, research on young (child and adolescent) voices is still in its infancy. There is still insufficient data on young people's voices based on which, "norms" in behavior could be modeled, particularly for contemporary commercial music (CCM), such as musical theater (MT). The objective of this study was to assess if quantifiable differences in vocal production and acoustic output of young singers exist between "classical" and "MT" styles. The study was a prospective cohort study of 20 adolescent female singers aged 12-17 years training their voices using a system, which includes both "classical" and "MT" styles. The study examined laryngographically derived closed quotient (CQ), average vowel spectra (AVS) and long-term average spectra (LTAS) measures of the sung voices of singers in "classical" and "MT" styles. The spectral slope was shallower for the MT voice, and the mean CQ was significantly higher across the pitch range when singing in an MT style than in a "classical" style. The second to fifth harmonics were stronger in the MT style than in classical, with a significant difference between the two styles. The increase in relative intensity in the first five harmonics was disproportionately higher than the increase in CQ. Results, therefore, suggested that MT singing primarily uses change in resonance strategy rather than raised vocal tension to achieve the tonal changes associated with the genre.

“What Do We Mean by Opera, Anyway?”: Lloyd Webber'sPhantom of the Operaand “High-Pop” Theatre

“What Do We Mean by Opera, Anyway?”: Lloyd Webber's<i>Phantom of the Opera</i>and “High-Pop” Theatre

La Murciana: dos versiones para un cante minero

Este artículo presenta uno de los estilos de cante minero quizás menos conocido y desarrollado en la práctica flamenca, La Murciana, y concretamente, dos versiones que hoy en día son más conocidas y reinterpretadas en el Festival Internacional del Cante de las Minas de La Unión. Mi trabajo se ha centrado, principalmente, en la investigación de su estructura formal y cadencial. Con este trabajo he pretendido aportar en la forma más sintética, clara y ordenada posible, el conjunto de informaciones que para mí han significado una nueva manera de acceder a un repertorio extraordinariamente rico, por ello, toda labor historiográfica ha quedado supeditada a la misión de instruirme y enriquecer mis conocimientos sobre este estilo musical.

The Characterization of the Vibrato in Lyric and Sertanejo Singing Styles: Acoustic and Perceptual Auditory Aspects

The vibrato is one of the embellishments most frequently used in the singing voice and it can be found in different singing styles, among those, lyric and Sertanejo (Brazilian country western-like singing style). Considering these two styles, the objective of the present study was to analyze the production of vibrato in the singing voice in the lyric and sertanejo genres from an acoustic and perceptual viewpoint. Twenty male singers-10 classical (operatic) singers and 10 sertanejo singers-reportedly in perfect laryngeal health, served as subjects for this study. Digital recording of the subjects' voices was performed. For each phonation, acoustic analysis was carried out together with comparison of overtones and vibrato rate and extension measurements. The results have shown that the mean values for vibrato rate and extent in lyric singers were 4.55-6.25 Hz and 0-54-1.66 semitone, respectively, whereas for sertanejo they were 5.0-6.56 Hz and 0.54-0.95 semitone. In the spectrogram, there was regularity in terms of frequency oscillation in the lyric genre whereas in the sertanejo style there was no regularity.