Allan Vurma | Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (original) (raw)
Papers by Allan Vurma
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Sep 30, 2023
Mäetagused (Trükis), Nov 30, 2023
Klassikalisel laulmisel on tihti probleemiks lauldava teksti arusaadavus. Käesoleva uurimuse eesm... more Klassikalisel laulmisel on tihti probleemiks lauldava teksti arusaadavus. Käesoleva uurimuse eesmärgiks on kontrollida hüpoteese, et (1) võrreldes tavalise kõnelemisega kalduvad ooperlikult valjul laulmisel helitud klusiilid intensiivistuma proportsionaalselt vähem kui vokaalid, mistõttu klusiilide tuvastamine muutub raskemaks, ja et (2) klusiili intensiivsem hääldamine laulmisel parandab selle tuvastatavust. Viie professionaalse laulja poolt esitatud romantilise perioodi itaaliakeelsete ooperiaariate esituste analüüsimisel selgus, et võrreldes aaria teksti lugemisega olid lauldud vokaalid keskmiselt 14,2 dB, kuid /k/, /p/ ja /t/ vaid 7,1 dB intensiivsemad. Kuuekümne osalejaga tajukatses parandas intensiivsem klusiilide hääldamine nende äratundmist üldiselt vaid siis, kui stiimulid esitati reverbereeruva akustikaga ruumis ja/või koos saate-ning ansamblipartnerite produtseeritud helisid imiteeriva roosa müraga. Juhusest kõrgem klusiili tuvastatavus võis teatud juhtudel säilida ka siis, kui selle eksplosiooniosa asendas vaikus. https://www.folklore.ee/tagused/nr87/intensiivsussuhted.pdf
Routledge eBooks, Jul 5, 2017
Journal of Voice, Mar 1, 2022
In the literature on vocal pedagogy we may find suggestions to increase the mouth opening when si... more In the literature on vocal pedagogy we may find suggestions to increase the mouth opening when singing louder. It is known that sopranos tend to sing loud high notes with a wider mouth opening which raises the frequency of the first resonance of the vocal tract (f R1) to tune it close to the fundamental. Our experiment with classically trained male singers revealed that they also tended to raise the f R1 with the dynamics at pitches where the formant tuning does not seem relevant. The analysis by synthesis showed that such behaviour may contribute to the strengthening of the singer's formant by several dB-s and to a rise in the centre of spectral gravity. The contribution of the f R1 raising to the overall sound level was less consistent. Changing the extent of the mouth opening with the dynamics may create several simultaneous semantic cues that signal how prominent the produced sound is and how great the physical effort by the singer is. The diminishing of the mouth opening when singing piano may also have an importance as it helps singers to produce a quieter sound by increasing the distance between the f R1 and higher resonances, which lowers the transfer function of the vocal tract at the relevant spectral regions.
Musicae Scientiae, Sep 11, 2018
This study was motivated by the frequently expressed opinion that in the classical style of singi... more This study was motivated by the frequently expressed opinion that in the classical style of singing one of the main objectives is the evenness of the voice over wide pitch and dynamic ranges. With an empirical experiment, we aimed to discover whether and how the acoustical parameters related to voice timbre change when professional male vocalists fulfil vocal tasks with changing pitch and dynamics. We asked 11 participants to produce one-octave D-major ascending diatonic scales in three different ways: (1) with their habitual dynamics, (2) with sempre crescendo, and (3) with sempre diminuendo. The values of the corresponding parameters varied systematically in the case of all the singers tested. Some of these changes occurred for purely acoustical reasons that are unrelated to the vocal technique of the singer. Several singers used vocal strategies whose purpose appeared to be the improvement of the perceived evenness of the voice. One such technique was the creation of a difference between the piano and forte dynamics primarily by changing the voice timbre without varying the sound level significantly. An alternative strategy was varying the sound level while minimizing the variation in the level of the singer's formant (which is related to the brightness and carrying power of the voice).
Journal of Voice, Mar 1, 2017
This work aimed to investigate glottal adduction in the case of the singing of diatonic D major a... more This work aimed to investigate glottal adduction in the case of the singing of diatonic D major ascending scales with different dynamic shapings on vowel [a:] by 10 classically trained male singers. The parameters obtained by inverse filtering-closed quotient (CQ), normalized amplitude quotient (NAQ), and the level difference between the first two partials of the glottal flow waveform spectrum (H1-H2)-all indicated statistically significant systematic changes when singers sang (1) with habitual dynamics without intentional dynamic changes; (2) with sempre crescendo from piano to forte; and (3) with sempre diminuendo from forte to piano. Adduction on average was lower if the tone with the same pitch was sung piano compared with when it was sung forte. The piano tones with the limit of one and the same dynamic task were sung with lower adduction on average compared with one octave higher or lower tones sung forte, although here the agreement between different parameters was poorer and the individual variability was greater. There was only a moderate negative correlation between CQ and NAQ (r = -0.41) but a strong negative correlation between CQ and H1-H2 (r = -0.8). CQ showed a moderate positive correlation with sound level but no significant correlation with pitch. NAQ showed a strong and significant positive correlation with pitch but not with sound level (except when it was calculated only at constant pitch). Some of the most experienced singers used quite high glottal adduction levels, questioning the concept of whether flow phonation is always the favorite classical style.
Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology, 2003
Music Perception, Apr 1, 2006
In the first experiment, 13 professional singers performed a vocal exercise consisting of three a... more In the first experiment, 13 professional singers performed a vocal exercise consisting of three ascending and descending melodic intervals: minor second, tritone, and perfect fifth. Seconds were sung more narrowly but fifths more widely in both directions, as compared to their equally tempered counterparts. In the second experiment, intonation accuracy in performances recorded from the first experiment was evaluated in a listening test. Tritones and fifths were more frequently classified as out of tune than seconds. Good correspondence was found between interval tuning and the listeners' responses. The performers themselves evaluated their performance almost randomly in the immediate post-performance situation but acted comparably to the independent group after listening to their own recording. The data suggest that melodic intervals may be, on an average, 20 to 25 cents out of tune and still be estimated as correctly tuned by expert listeners.
Musicae Scientiae, Mar 1, 2000
The voices of 42 students studying classical opera singing at the Estonian Academy of Music were ... more The voices of 42 students studying classical opera singing at the Estonian Academy of Music were investigated to find any objectively definable qualities possibly correlating with the length of training. Each student's singing of a four-bar seven-word initial phrase from a well-known Estonian classical solo was recorded. The recordings were digitalized and subjected to acoustic analysis yielding the long-term average spectrum (LTAS) for each voice studied. It turned out that the longer a singing student had been trained professionally, the higher was the level of the so-called singer's formant in her/his LTAS. Subsequently the voice quality in each recording was evaluated by four experts using a five-point scale, five points marking the best quality and one point the poorest. It turned out that the average ratings did not show any positive correlation with the length of training, rather, a slightly negative trend (notstatistically significant) could be observed. The results seem to support the critical remarksmade bysome Estonian specialists about domestic teaching of vocal music being perhaps inadequate in some respects (Pappel, 1990). The teaching process seems to be focused on the development of those qualities that enable the singer to be audible in large halls and with a symphony orchestra, while the timbral qualities recede into the background.
Mäetagused (Trükis), Dec 1, 2017
Käesoleva töö eesmärk oli uurida, kas ja kuidas muutuvad klassikaliselt treenitud lauljate hääle ... more Käesoleva töö eesmärk oli uurida, kas ja kuidas muutuvad klassikaliselt treenitud lauljate hääle tämbriga seotud akustilised parameetrid, kui laulda hääle dünaamikat ja helikõrgust muutes. Uurimust motiveeris läbi viima vokaalpedagoogilises kirjanduses sageli väljendatud seisukoht, et klassikalise laulutreeningu üks eesmärk on hääle kõlalise ühtluse saavutamine. Palusime kümnel meeslauljal (kelle hulgas olid ooperi-ja oratooriumisolistid ning laulueriala üliõpilased) laulda ühe oktavi ulatusega tõusvaid D-duuri gammasid (vahemikus d-d 1) kolmel moel: (1) kõige harjumuspärasema dünaamikaga, (2) häälevaljust kasvatades ja (3) häälevaljust kahandades. Salvestasime esitused väikese reverberatsiooniga helistuudios. Tarkvara Sopran 1.0.10 abil arvutasime iga lauldud noodi keskmise võimsusspektri, kus määrasime põhitooni ja lauljaformandi spektripiirkondade tugevused spektri kõige tugevama tipu taseme suhtes. Mõõtsime iga lauldud noodi puhul ka helirõhu taseme ja glotaalse aduktsiooni tugevust iseloomustavate sulguskvotsiendi ja kvaasikontaktkvotsiendi väärtused. Uuringutulemused näitasid, et vastavad parameetrid muutusid ülesannete täitmisel süstemaatiliselt kõigi lauljate puhul. Osa kirjeldatud muutustest tingisid puht-akustilised faktorid, mida vokalist ei saa vokaaltehnikaga mõjutada. Mõni laulja kasutas vokaaltehnilisi võtteid, mille eesmärgiks võis olla häälekõla tajutava ühtluse parandamine. Üks taolisi võtteid oli piano ja forte vahelise erinevuse tekitamine eelkõige hääle tämbri, mitte aga niivõrd otsese helirõhu taseme abil. Vastupidiseks strateegiaks oli just helirõhu taseme muutmine, samal ajal hääletämbri kanduvuse ja ereduse aspektiga seotud lauljaformandi suhtelise tugevuse varieerumist väiksena hoides. Hääle tajutav ühtlus võib olla seotud veel hääle mõningate omadustega, mida käesolevas töös lähemalt ei käsitletud. Hääleparameetrite väärtuste varieerumise viis sõltuvalt helikõrgusest ja dünaamikast võib oleneda ka häälikust, mida laulmisel kasutatakse ning helikõrguse piirkonnast.
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, May 1, 2008
An overview of the authors' research on perception and production of singing voice as well as on ... more An overview of the authors' research on perception and production of singing voice as well as on the methods of voice training is presented. In the first study, a correlation was found for a group of voice students between the duration of training and the strength of the singer's formant, while the tone quality estimates were not significantly higher for students with longer practice years. In the second study we investigated possible acoustical correlates of the 'forward'/'backward' placing of a voice. A 'forward' placed voice may have higher F1, F2 and/or the singer's formant frequencies as well as a higher level of the singer's formant. In the third study we investigated the intonation accuracy in a cappella performance. There are considerable interindividual differences between performers as to their adjustment of pitch level. The stability of intonation varies significantly both within a single rendition of the vocal exercise as well as between its consecutive renditions. There is a positive correlation between the deviation of a melodic interval from its equally tempered standard value and the number of out-of-tune judgments by the listeners. The dispersion of out-of-tune judgments is considerable, which suggests that listeners might have adopted different criteria for intonation accuracy.
Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology, 2010
This research describes the strategy of singers in reacting to the pitch deviation from equally t... more This research describes the strategy of singers in reacting to the pitch deviation from equally tempered (ET) value in their ensemble partner's part in singing two-part a cappella music, and the ability of professional musicians to identify such deviations. Professional singers preferred to maintain the purity of melodic intervals in their own part and to ignore the occurring harmonic mistuning with their deviating ensemble partner. In multi-part singing, the musical interval perception ability of the singers is more finely honed for production than it is for perception, which can be explained by the enhancing effect of the memory of how to vocally produce the intervals, available only in the process of singing.
Journal of Voice, Sep 1, 2002
Singing teachers sometimes characterize voice quality in terms of "forward" and "backward" placem... more Singing teachers sometimes characterize voice quality in terms of "forward" and "backward" placement. In view of our traditional knowledge about voice production it is hard to explain any possible acoustic or articulatory differences between the voices so "placed." The analysis of the teachers' expert opinions demonstrates that, in general, a voice placed "forward" indicates a desirable quality that students should attain by the end of their studies. Productions that were perceived as "forward" and "backward" were selected from the listening test. The acoustic analysis of those productions reveals that the voice quality in the case of "forward" placement correlates with higher frequencies of the second (F2) and third (F3) formants, as well as with a more salient "singer's formant" in the voice. The five basic vowels were included in the investigation.
This research is aimed at studying to what extent the perceived pitch of a sound is influenced by... more This research is aimed at studying to what extent the perceived pitch of a sound is influenced by its timbre. Pairs of two consecutive tones were presented to thirteen experts who had to decide whether the second tone in each pair was flat, sharp, or equal in pitch, in comparison to the first tone. The tones in a pair could have produced by a viola, trumpet, or a singing voice. Fundamental frequency of the tones was varied stepwise up to half of a semitone in comparison with the standard. Pitch of the singing voice and trumpet sound was perceived about 20 cents higher in average than pitch of the viola sound with the same fundamental frequency.
Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology, Mar 19, 2013
Timbre-induced pitch shift from the perspective of Signal
Abstract. This article deals with timbre-induced pitch deviations and their magnitude in environm... more Abstract. This article deals with timbre-induced pitch deviations and their magnitude in environments designed to resemble those that performing musicians encounter in their daily practice. Two experiments were con-ducted. In the first experiment classically trained singers matched the pitch of synthe-sized sounds of the piano and oboe. The fun-damental frequency of vocal sounds was on average 7 to 13 cents lower than the funda-mental frequency of the instrumental sounds. The difference was more pronounced in the case of the piano timbre. In the second ex-periment, participants compared sounds pro-duced by a single performer from the pitch-matching task of the first experiment to syn-thesized piano and oboe sounds. A three-alter-native forced choice task was used, where participants judged whether the instrumental sounds were higher, lower or equal in pitch when compared to the vocal sounds. Results showed that the highest number of in-tune ratings was elicited if the vocal sounds w...
The present article focuses on the question of whether the timbre difference of two sounds with h... more The present article focuses on the question of whether the timbre difference of two sounds with harmonic spectra, produced by natural musical instruments or the singing voice, may influence subjective assessments of the pitch of one sound in relation to the pitch of the other. The authors administered a series of perception tests to a group of professional musicians (n = 13) and a group of non-musicians (n = 13). The tests used the following pre-recorded sounds: the singing voice, the sound of the viola, and the sound of the trumpet. The participants had to compare the pitch of pair-wise presented successive tones and decide whether the second tone was either ‘flat’, ‘sharp ’ or ‘in tune’. Tests using stimuli in the pitch range around A3 (220 Hz) at a loudness level of approximately 90 phons revealed pitch shifts of significant magnitude likely to affect intonation quality in a musical performance among both musicians and non-musicians. The conclusion drawn from the study is that ti...
The voices of 42 students studying classical opera singing at the Estonian Academy of Music were ... more The voices of 42 students studying classical opera singing at the Estonian Academy of Music were investigated to find any objectively definable qualities possibly correlating with the length of training. Each student's singing of a four-bar seven-word initial phrase from a well-known Estonian classical solo was recorded. The recordings were digitalized and subjected to acoustic analysis yielding the long-term average spectrum (LTAS) for each voice studied. It turned out that the longer a singing student had been trained professionally, the higher was the level of the so-called singer's formant in her/his LTAS. Subsequently the voice quality in each recording was evaluated by four experts using a five-point scale, five points marking the best quality and one point the poorest. It turned out that the average ratings did not show any positive correlation with the length of training, rather, a slightly negative trend (not statistically significant) could be observed. The resul...
Teesid: Käesoleva töö eesmärk oli uurida, kas ja kuidas muutuvad klassikaliselt treenitud lauljat... more Teesid: Käesoleva töö eesmärk oli uurida, kas ja kuidas muutuvad klassikaliselt treenitud lauljate hääle tämbriga seotud akustilised parameetrid, kui laulda hääle dünaamikat ja helikõrgust muutes. Uurimust motiveeris läbi viima vokaalpedagoogilises kirjanduses sageli väljendatud seisukoht, et klassikalise laulutreeningu üks eesmärk on hääle kõlalise ühtluse saavutamine. Palusime kümnel meeslauljal (kelle hulgas olid ooperija oratooriumisolistid ning laulueriala üliõpilased) laulda ühe oktavi ulatusega tõusvaid D-duuri gammasid (vahemikus d – d1) kolmel moel: (1) kõige harjumuspärasema dünaamikaga, (2) häälevaljust kasvatades ja (3) häälevaljust kahandades. Salvestasime esitused väikese reverberatsiooniga helistuudios. Tarkvara Sopran 1.0.10 abil arvutasime iga lauldud noodi keskmise võimsusspektri, kus määrasime põhitooni ja lauljaformandi spektripiirkondade tugevused spektri kõige tugevama tipu taseme suhtes. Mõõtsime iga lauldud noodi puhul ka helirõhu taseme ja glotaalse aduktsio...
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Sep 30, 2023
Mäetagused (Trükis), Nov 30, 2023
Klassikalisel laulmisel on tihti probleemiks lauldava teksti arusaadavus. Käesoleva uurimuse eesm... more Klassikalisel laulmisel on tihti probleemiks lauldava teksti arusaadavus. Käesoleva uurimuse eesmärgiks on kontrollida hüpoteese, et (1) võrreldes tavalise kõnelemisega kalduvad ooperlikult valjul laulmisel helitud klusiilid intensiivistuma proportsionaalselt vähem kui vokaalid, mistõttu klusiilide tuvastamine muutub raskemaks, ja et (2) klusiili intensiivsem hääldamine laulmisel parandab selle tuvastatavust. Viie professionaalse laulja poolt esitatud romantilise perioodi itaaliakeelsete ooperiaariate esituste analüüsimisel selgus, et võrreldes aaria teksti lugemisega olid lauldud vokaalid keskmiselt 14,2 dB, kuid /k/, /p/ ja /t/ vaid 7,1 dB intensiivsemad. Kuuekümne osalejaga tajukatses parandas intensiivsem klusiilide hääldamine nende äratundmist üldiselt vaid siis, kui stiimulid esitati reverbereeruva akustikaga ruumis ja/või koos saate-ning ansamblipartnerite produtseeritud helisid imiteeriva roosa müraga. Juhusest kõrgem klusiili tuvastatavus võis teatud juhtudel säilida ka siis, kui selle eksplosiooniosa asendas vaikus. https://www.folklore.ee/tagused/nr87/intensiivsussuhted.pdf
Routledge eBooks, Jul 5, 2017
Journal of Voice, Mar 1, 2022
In the literature on vocal pedagogy we may find suggestions to increase the mouth opening when si... more In the literature on vocal pedagogy we may find suggestions to increase the mouth opening when singing louder. It is known that sopranos tend to sing loud high notes with a wider mouth opening which raises the frequency of the first resonance of the vocal tract (f R1) to tune it close to the fundamental. Our experiment with classically trained male singers revealed that they also tended to raise the f R1 with the dynamics at pitches where the formant tuning does not seem relevant. The analysis by synthesis showed that such behaviour may contribute to the strengthening of the singer's formant by several dB-s and to a rise in the centre of spectral gravity. The contribution of the f R1 raising to the overall sound level was less consistent. Changing the extent of the mouth opening with the dynamics may create several simultaneous semantic cues that signal how prominent the produced sound is and how great the physical effort by the singer is. The diminishing of the mouth opening when singing piano may also have an importance as it helps singers to produce a quieter sound by increasing the distance between the f R1 and higher resonances, which lowers the transfer function of the vocal tract at the relevant spectral regions.
Musicae Scientiae, Sep 11, 2018
This study was motivated by the frequently expressed opinion that in the classical style of singi... more This study was motivated by the frequently expressed opinion that in the classical style of singing one of the main objectives is the evenness of the voice over wide pitch and dynamic ranges. With an empirical experiment, we aimed to discover whether and how the acoustical parameters related to voice timbre change when professional male vocalists fulfil vocal tasks with changing pitch and dynamics. We asked 11 participants to produce one-octave D-major ascending diatonic scales in three different ways: (1) with their habitual dynamics, (2) with sempre crescendo, and (3) with sempre diminuendo. The values of the corresponding parameters varied systematically in the case of all the singers tested. Some of these changes occurred for purely acoustical reasons that are unrelated to the vocal technique of the singer. Several singers used vocal strategies whose purpose appeared to be the improvement of the perceived evenness of the voice. One such technique was the creation of a difference between the piano and forte dynamics primarily by changing the voice timbre without varying the sound level significantly. An alternative strategy was varying the sound level while minimizing the variation in the level of the singer's formant (which is related to the brightness and carrying power of the voice).
Journal of Voice, Mar 1, 2017
This work aimed to investigate glottal adduction in the case of the singing of diatonic D major a... more This work aimed to investigate glottal adduction in the case of the singing of diatonic D major ascending scales with different dynamic shapings on vowel [a:] by 10 classically trained male singers. The parameters obtained by inverse filtering-closed quotient (CQ), normalized amplitude quotient (NAQ), and the level difference between the first two partials of the glottal flow waveform spectrum (H1-H2)-all indicated statistically significant systematic changes when singers sang (1) with habitual dynamics without intentional dynamic changes; (2) with sempre crescendo from piano to forte; and (3) with sempre diminuendo from forte to piano. Adduction on average was lower if the tone with the same pitch was sung piano compared with when it was sung forte. The piano tones with the limit of one and the same dynamic task were sung with lower adduction on average compared with one octave higher or lower tones sung forte, although here the agreement between different parameters was poorer and the individual variability was greater. There was only a moderate negative correlation between CQ and NAQ (r = -0.41) but a strong negative correlation between CQ and H1-H2 (r = -0.8). CQ showed a moderate positive correlation with sound level but no significant correlation with pitch. NAQ showed a strong and significant positive correlation with pitch but not with sound level (except when it was calculated only at constant pitch). Some of the most experienced singers used quite high glottal adduction levels, questioning the concept of whether flow phonation is always the favorite classical style.
Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology, 2003
Music Perception, Apr 1, 2006
In the first experiment, 13 professional singers performed a vocal exercise consisting of three a... more In the first experiment, 13 professional singers performed a vocal exercise consisting of three ascending and descending melodic intervals: minor second, tritone, and perfect fifth. Seconds were sung more narrowly but fifths more widely in both directions, as compared to their equally tempered counterparts. In the second experiment, intonation accuracy in performances recorded from the first experiment was evaluated in a listening test. Tritones and fifths were more frequently classified as out of tune than seconds. Good correspondence was found between interval tuning and the listeners' responses. The performers themselves evaluated their performance almost randomly in the immediate post-performance situation but acted comparably to the independent group after listening to their own recording. The data suggest that melodic intervals may be, on an average, 20 to 25 cents out of tune and still be estimated as correctly tuned by expert listeners.
Musicae Scientiae, Mar 1, 2000
The voices of 42 students studying classical opera singing at the Estonian Academy of Music were ... more The voices of 42 students studying classical opera singing at the Estonian Academy of Music were investigated to find any objectively definable qualities possibly correlating with the length of training. Each student's singing of a four-bar seven-word initial phrase from a well-known Estonian classical solo was recorded. The recordings were digitalized and subjected to acoustic analysis yielding the long-term average spectrum (LTAS) for each voice studied. It turned out that the longer a singing student had been trained professionally, the higher was the level of the so-called singer's formant in her/his LTAS. Subsequently the voice quality in each recording was evaluated by four experts using a five-point scale, five points marking the best quality and one point the poorest. It turned out that the average ratings did not show any positive correlation with the length of training, rather, a slightly negative trend (notstatistically significant) could be observed. The results seem to support the critical remarksmade bysome Estonian specialists about domestic teaching of vocal music being perhaps inadequate in some respects (Pappel, 1990). The teaching process seems to be focused on the development of those qualities that enable the singer to be audible in large halls and with a symphony orchestra, while the timbral qualities recede into the background.
Mäetagused (Trükis), Dec 1, 2017
Käesoleva töö eesmärk oli uurida, kas ja kuidas muutuvad klassikaliselt treenitud lauljate hääle ... more Käesoleva töö eesmärk oli uurida, kas ja kuidas muutuvad klassikaliselt treenitud lauljate hääle tämbriga seotud akustilised parameetrid, kui laulda hääle dünaamikat ja helikõrgust muutes. Uurimust motiveeris läbi viima vokaalpedagoogilises kirjanduses sageli väljendatud seisukoht, et klassikalise laulutreeningu üks eesmärk on hääle kõlalise ühtluse saavutamine. Palusime kümnel meeslauljal (kelle hulgas olid ooperi-ja oratooriumisolistid ning laulueriala üliõpilased) laulda ühe oktavi ulatusega tõusvaid D-duuri gammasid (vahemikus d-d 1) kolmel moel: (1) kõige harjumuspärasema dünaamikaga, (2) häälevaljust kasvatades ja (3) häälevaljust kahandades. Salvestasime esitused väikese reverberatsiooniga helistuudios. Tarkvara Sopran 1.0.10 abil arvutasime iga lauldud noodi keskmise võimsusspektri, kus määrasime põhitooni ja lauljaformandi spektripiirkondade tugevused spektri kõige tugevama tipu taseme suhtes. Mõõtsime iga lauldud noodi puhul ka helirõhu taseme ja glotaalse aduktsiooni tugevust iseloomustavate sulguskvotsiendi ja kvaasikontaktkvotsiendi väärtused. Uuringutulemused näitasid, et vastavad parameetrid muutusid ülesannete täitmisel süstemaatiliselt kõigi lauljate puhul. Osa kirjeldatud muutustest tingisid puht-akustilised faktorid, mida vokalist ei saa vokaaltehnikaga mõjutada. Mõni laulja kasutas vokaaltehnilisi võtteid, mille eesmärgiks võis olla häälekõla tajutava ühtluse parandamine. Üks taolisi võtteid oli piano ja forte vahelise erinevuse tekitamine eelkõige hääle tämbri, mitte aga niivõrd otsese helirõhu taseme abil. Vastupidiseks strateegiaks oli just helirõhu taseme muutmine, samal ajal hääletämbri kanduvuse ja ereduse aspektiga seotud lauljaformandi suhtelise tugevuse varieerumist väiksena hoides. Hääle tajutav ühtlus võib olla seotud veel hääle mõningate omadustega, mida käesolevas töös lähemalt ei käsitletud. Hääleparameetrite väärtuste varieerumise viis sõltuvalt helikõrgusest ja dünaamikast võib oleneda ka häälikust, mida laulmisel kasutatakse ning helikõrguse piirkonnast.
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, May 1, 2008
An overview of the authors' research on perception and production of singing voice as well as on ... more An overview of the authors' research on perception and production of singing voice as well as on the methods of voice training is presented. In the first study, a correlation was found for a group of voice students between the duration of training and the strength of the singer's formant, while the tone quality estimates were not significantly higher for students with longer practice years. In the second study we investigated possible acoustical correlates of the 'forward'/'backward' placing of a voice. A 'forward' placed voice may have higher F1, F2 and/or the singer's formant frequencies as well as a higher level of the singer's formant. In the third study we investigated the intonation accuracy in a cappella performance. There are considerable interindividual differences between performers as to their adjustment of pitch level. The stability of intonation varies significantly both within a single rendition of the vocal exercise as well as between its consecutive renditions. There is a positive correlation between the deviation of a melodic interval from its equally tempered standard value and the number of out-of-tune judgments by the listeners. The dispersion of out-of-tune judgments is considerable, which suggests that listeners might have adopted different criteria for intonation accuracy.
Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology, 2010
This research describes the strategy of singers in reacting to the pitch deviation from equally t... more This research describes the strategy of singers in reacting to the pitch deviation from equally tempered (ET) value in their ensemble partner's part in singing two-part a cappella music, and the ability of professional musicians to identify such deviations. Professional singers preferred to maintain the purity of melodic intervals in their own part and to ignore the occurring harmonic mistuning with their deviating ensemble partner. In multi-part singing, the musical interval perception ability of the singers is more finely honed for production than it is for perception, which can be explained by the enhancing effect of the memory of how to vocally produce the intervals, available only in the process of singing.
Journal of Voice, Sep 1, 2002
Singing teachers sometimes characterize voice quality in terms of "forward" and "backward" placem... more Singing teachers sometimes characterize voice quality in terms of "forward" and "backward" placement. In view of our traditional knowledge about voice production it is hard to explain any possible acoustic or articulatory differences between the voices so "placed." The analysis of the teachers' expert opinions demonstrates that, in general, a voice placed "forward" indicates a desirable quality that students should attain by the end of their studies. Productions that were perceived as "forward" and "backward" were selected from the listening test. The acoustic analysis of those productions reveals that the voice quality in the case of "forward" placement correlates with higher frequencies of the second (F2) and third (F3) formants, as well as with a more salient "singer's formant" in the voice. The five basic vowels were included in the investigation.
This research is aimed at studying to what extent the perceived pitch of a sound is influenced by... more This research is aimed at studying to what extent the perceived pitch of a sound is influenced by its timbre. Pairs of two consecutive tones were presented to thirteen experts who had to decide whether the second tone in each pair was flat, sharp, or equal in pitch, in comparison to the first tone. The tones in a pair could have produced by a viola, trumpet, or a singing voice. Fundamental frequency of the tones was varied stepwise up to half of a semitone in comparison with the standard. Pitch of the singing voice and trumpet sound was perceived about 20 cents higher in average than pitch of the viola sound with the same fundamental frequency.
Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology, Mar 19, 2013
Timbre-induced pitch shift from the perspective of Signal
Abstract. This article deals with timbre-induced pitch deviations and their magnitude in environm... more Abstract. This article deals with timbre-induced pitch deviations and their magnitude in environments designed to resemble those that performing musicians encounter in their daily practice. Two experiments were con-ducted. In the first experiment classically trained singers matched the pitch of synthe-sized sounds of the piano and oboe. The fun-damental frequency of vocal sounds was on average 7 to 13 cents lower than the funda-mental frequency of the instrumental sounds. The difference was more pronounced in the case of the piano timbre. In the second ex-periment, participants compared sounds pro-duced by a single performer from the pitch-matching task of the first experiment to syn-thesized piano and oboe sounds. A three-alter-native forced choice task was used, where participants judged whether the instrumental sounds were higher, lower or equal in pitch when compared to the vocal sounds. Results showed that the highest number of in-tune ratings was elicited if the vocal sounds w...
The present article focuses on the question of whether the timbre difference of two sounds with h... more The present article focuses on the question of whether the timbre difference of two sounds with harmonic spectra, produced by natural musical instruments or the singing voice, may influence subjective assessments of the pitch of one sound in relation to the pitch of the other. The authors administered a series of perception tests to a group of professional musicians (n = 13) and a group of non-musicians (n = 13). The tests used the following pre-recorded sounds: the singing voice, the sound of the viola, and the sound of the trumpet. The participants had to compare the pitch of pair-wise presented successive tones and decide whether the second tone was either ‘flat’, ‘sharp ’ or ‘in tune’. Tests using stimuli in the pitch range around A3 (220 Hz) at a loudness level of approximately 90 phons revealed pitch shifts of significant magnitude likely to affect intonation quality in a musical performance among both musicians and non-musicians. The conclusion drawn from the study is that ti...
The voices of 42 students studying classical opera singing at the Estonian Academy of Music were ... more The voices of 42 students studying classical opera singing at the Estonian Academy of Music were investigated to find any objectively definable qualities possibly correlating with the length of training. Each student's singing of a four-bar seven-word initial phrase from a well-known Estonian classical solo was recorded. The recordings were digitalized and subjected to acoustic analysis yielding the long-term average spectrum (LTAS) for each voice studied. It turned out that the longer a singing student had been trained professionally, the higher was the level of the so-called singer's formant in her/his LTAS. Subsequently the voice quality in each recording was evaluated by four experts using a five-point scale, five points marking the best quality and one point the poorest. It turned out that the average ratings did not show any positive correlation with the length of training, rather, a slightly negative trend (not statistically significant) could be observed. The resul...
Teesid: Käesoleva töö eesmärk oli uurida, kas ja kuidas muutuvad klassikaliselt treenitud lauljat... more Teesid: Käesoleva töö eesmärk oli uurida, kas ja kuidas muutuvad klassikaliselt treenitud lauljate hääle tämbriga seotud akustilised parameetrid, kui laulda hääle dünaamikat ja helikõrgust muutes. Uurimust motiveeris läbi viima vokaalpedagoogilises kirjanduses sageli väljendatud seisukoht, et klassikalise laulutreeningu üks eesmärk on hääle kõlalise ühtluse saavutamine. Palusime kümnel meeslauljal (kelle hulgas olid ooperija oratooriumisolistid ning laulueriala üliõpilased) laulda ühe oktavi ulatusega tõusvaid D-duuri gammasid (vahemikus d – d1) kolmel moel: (1) kõige harjumuspärasema dünaamikaga, (2) häälevaljust kasvatades ja (3) häälevaljust kahandades. Salvestasime esitused väikese reverberatsiooniga helistuudios. Tarkvara Sopran 1.0.10 abil arvutasime iga lauldud noodi keskmise võimsusspektri, kus määrasime põhitooni ja lauljaformandi spektripiirkondade tugevused spektri kõige tugevama tipu taseme suhtes. Mõõtsime iga lauldud noodi puhul ka helirõhu taseme ja glotaalse aduktsio...