Course:PHYS341/Archive/2016wTerm2/UnderstandingSopranoVoice

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Understanding the Opera Sopranos

Picture taken of Israeli Soprano Riki Guy as Giulietta during dress rehearsal of Les Contes d’Hoffmann at Lisbon Opera House, April 2008.

It is common for listeners to have trouble understanding what an opera soprano is singing. Recent studies uses physics of sound to explain the decrease in vowel distinction at higher frequencies that sopranos sing in.[1][2][3][4][5][6]


Soprano Voice

Main Article: Soprano
Figure 1. Soprano voice range shown in green on a piano keyboard with a dot marking middle C

The human voice is a versatile musical instrument. The human voice primarily uses the vocal folds, lungs, and larynx to produce sound. The mouth creates acoustic impedance, and adjusting the position of the mouth can affect the efficacy and intelligibility of sung vowels.

The soprano voice is a female singing voice type with the highest vocal range. In scientific pitch notation, the soprano range is from C4 to C6, shown on a piano keyboard in fig 1.

Vocal Tract Resonance and Fundamental Frequencies

Main Articles: Vocal Resonation and Fundamental Frequency
Figure 2. Graph showing how the singer's formant allows a vocalist to be heard above an orchestra. Red line shows the singer's formant rising above the orchestra (blue line) around 3000 Hz. Green line shows a vocalist without using the singer's formant.

Vocal tract resonance help humans produce various vowel sounds. This resonance is altered by changing the position of the tongue, jaw, and lips. Resonant frequencies, Ri, can amplify fundamental pitch frequencies in speech and singing. The fundamental frequency, f0, is determined by the tension applied to the vocal folds and is accompanied by a harmonic series of overtones, nf0.[7] While sopranos can sing at frequencies higher than the lowest resonant frequency, fundamental frequencies and its overtones need to be below the resonant frequencies in order to benefit from the resonant frequency's amplification; failure to do so will reduce both their vocal power and timbre.[8][9]

The Singer's Formant

Main Article: Formant

In singing, a formant can be understood as the resonance of the vocal tract.[10] The vocal cavity absorbs and dampens the sound waves which broadens the range of resonant frequencies.[11] Trained singers can produce a formant around 3000 Hz that allows a singer to project their voice to be heard above an orchestra (shown in figure 2).[12]

Vocal Tract Tuning

Figure 4. Resonance tuning ranges across all vocal ranges. Yellow box indicates R1:f0 tuning within soprano range. Red box indicates the limit of R1 tuning at 1kHz. Green box indicates R2:f0 tuning range which some singers might switch to once their singing frequency exceeds R1's limits.

In soprano singing, the fundamental frequency, f0, is often higher than the first formant, F1, for vowels in speech.[13]. In order to maintain the singer's formant, vocalists adjust the first resonant frequency, R1, to match the fundamental frequency by changing the position and spacing of the lips, oral cavity, and tongue. This process is referred to as R1:f0 tuning.[14][15][16] Figure 4 displays the R1:f0 tuning range for soprano singers. The higher the frequency the vocalist sings, the wider they need to open their mouth to adjust R1. [17] However, it is physically impossible to raise R1 to 1 kHz because the mouth cannot open any wider (indicated by red box) and some singers may switch to R2:f0 tuning by increasing their vertical lip spacing. Some singers can combine both R1:f0 lip adjustments with R2:f0 tuning. [18][19][20] The continued opening of the oral cavity to adjust R1 disrupts the singer's vowel placement; studies have shown that above the 1 kHz range, there is a significant drop in the intelligibility of vowels, especially open rounded "æ" (i.e. Black), "e" (i.e. Play), "ʌ" (i.e. Cut), "ə" (i.e. Met), and "ɑ" (i.e. Hot) sounds. [21][22]

Sopranos in Opera

In opera, singers must make use of the singer's formant to be heard by the audience. However, at higher frequencies (especially 1 kHz and above), the soprano singer's R1:f0 or R2:f0 tuning gets in the way of pronouncing distinct vowels due to the placement of her jaw, lips, and tongue. As a result, it can be hard for audience members to understand what the opera heroine is singing. However, a study has shown that certain consonant-vowel word structures can help sopranos reduce the muddling of some words at higher frequencies. [23] During performances today, surtitles are commonly used to help the audience follow along.

See Also

References

  1. ↑ Deme, A. (2014). Intelligibility of sung vowels: The effect of consonantal context and the onset of voicing. Journal of Voice, 28(4), 523.e19-e25. doi:10.1016/j.jvoice.2014.01.003
  2. ↑ Garnier, M., Henrich, N., Smith, J., & Wolfe, J. (2010). Vocal tract adjustments in the high soprano range. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 127(6), 3771-3780. doi:10.1121/1.3419907
  3. ↑ Hanna, N., Smith, J., & Wolfe, J. (2016). Frequencies, bandwidths and magnitudes of vocal tract and surrounding tissue resonances, measured through the lips during phonation. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 139(5), 2924-2936. doi:10.1121/1.4948754
  4. ↑ Joliveau, E., Smith, J. and Wolfe, J. (2004) "Tuning of vocal tract resonances by sopranos", Nature, 427, 116.
  5. ↑ Schwarzschild, B. (2004). Acoustics experiment shows why it's so hard to make out the heroine's words at the opera. Physics Today, 57(3), 23-25.
  6. ↑ Kob, M. Henrich, N. Howard, D., Herzel, H., Tokuda, I. and Wolfe, J. (2011) "Analysing and understanding the singing voice: recent progress and open questions" Current Bioinformatics. 6, 362-374.
  7. ↑ Schwarzschild, B. (2004). Acoustics experiment shows why it's so hard to make out the heroine's words at the opera. Physics Today, 57(3), 23-25.
  8. ↑ Schwarzschild, B. (2004). Acoustics experiment shows why it's so hard to make out the heroine's words at the opera. Physics Today, 57(3), 23-25.
  9. ↑ Joliveau, E., Smith, J. and Wolfe, J. (2004) "Tuning of vocal tract resonances by sopranos", Nature, 427, 116.
  10. ↑ Titze, I.R. (1994). Principles of Voice Production, Prentice Hall.
  11. ↑ White, H. E. & White, D. H. (2014). Physics and Music: The Science of Musical Sound. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, Inc.
  12. ↑ White, H. E. & White, D. H. (2014). Physics and Music: The Science of Musical Sound. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, Inc.
  13. ↑ Deme, A. (2014). Intelligibility of sung vowels: The effect of consonantal context and the onset of voicing. Journal of Voice, 28(4), 523.e19-e25. doi:10.1016/j.jvoice.2014.01.003
  14. ↑ Garnier, M., Henrich, N., Smith, J., & Wolfe, J. (2010). Vocal tract adjustments in the high soprano range. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 127(6), 3771-3780. doi:10.1121/1.3419907
  15. ↑ Joliveau, E., Smith, J. and Wolfe, J. (2004) "Tuning of vocal tract resonances by sopranos", Nature, 427, 116.
  16. ↑ Kob, M. Henrich, N. Howard, D., Herzel, H., Tokuda, I. and Wolfe, J. (2011) "Analysing and understanding the singing voice: recent progress and open questions" Current Bioinformatics. 6, 362-374.
  17. ↑ Joliveau, E., Smith, J. and Wolfe, J. (2004) "Tuning of vocal tract resonances by sopranos", Nature, 427, 116.
  18. ↑ Joliveau, E., Smith, J. and Wolfe, J. (2004) "Tuning of vocal tract resonances by sopranos", Nature, 427, 116.
  19. ↑ Garnier, M., Henrich, N., Smith, J., & Wolfe, J. (2010). Vocal tract adjustments in the high soprano range. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 127(6), 3771-3780. doi:10.1121/1.3419907
  20. ↑ Schwarzschild, B. (2004). Acoustics experiment shows why it's so hard to make out the heroine's words at the opera. Physics Today, 57(3), 23-25.
  21. ↑ Deme, A. (2014). Intelligibility of sung vowels: The effect of consonantal context and the onset of voicing. Journal of Voice, 28(4), 523.e19-e25. doi:10.1016/j.jvoice.2014.01.003
  22. ↑ Hanna, N., Smith, J., & Wolfe, J. (2016). Frequencies, bandwidths and magnitudes of vocal tract and surrounding tissue resonances, measured through the lips during phonation. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 139(5), 2924-2936. doi:10.1121/1.4948754
  23. ↑ Deme, A. (2014). Intelligibility of sung vowels: The effect of consonantal context and the onset of voicing. Journal of Voice, 28(4), 523.e19-e25. doi:10.1016/j.jvoice.2014.01.003
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