Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
2434 J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 116 (4), Pt. 1, October 2004 0001-4966/2004/116(4)/2434/6/$20.00 © 2004 Acoustical Society of America
Downloaded 11 Oct 2013 to 128.197.27.9. Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://asadl.org/terms
FIG. 1. The geometry 共approximately to scale兲 in which the measurements
were made showing how an acoustic current source and a microphone are
placed so as to touch the singer’s lower lip.
J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 116, No. 4, Pt. 1, October 2004 Joliveau et al.: Resonance tuning by sopranos 2435
Downloaded 11 Oct 2013 to 128.197.27.9. Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://asadl.org/terms
lia or had lived in Australia for at least 10 years and were could not be determined from the voice signal at this pitch.
judged by the investigators to speak educated, metropolitan, From curves like those in Fig. 2, R1 – R5 were determined
Australian English. for each singer for the four vowels over their comfortable
pitch range. However, R5 was not always apparent in the
C. The experiments frequency range studied, and R1 was not strong enough for
reliable measurement on one singer.
Four vowels were chosen 共Ä,Å,É,/兲 to ensure ease of
Figure 3 shows the values for the vocal tract resonances
singing and measurement, sampling of the phoneme space,
for each vowel and pitch frequency f 0 , averaged across all
and the effects of lip rounding. The word to be sung was
presented in writing and had the form h 具 vowel典 d 共Ä—hard; singers. The dashed lines represent R⫽n f 0 , where n
Å—hoard; É—who’d; /—heard兲. Each subject then sang a ⫽1,2,...,6. When a resonance coincides with the nth of these
note without vibrato that was sustained for 4 s. These notes lines, the resonance is in tune with the nth harmonic of the
comprised an ascending diatonic scale that covered their en- voice. Consistent coincidence of the average resonance with
tire comfortable range for each vowel. The target pitch was one of the harmonics would suggest matching or tuning to
provided by a glockenspiel before each note. They were that harmonic.
asked to sing ‘‘softly, but in their trained singing style.’’ They If there are several possible harmonics nearby, then it is
were asked to sing softly for the following reason. Singers insufficient to compare the resonance averaged over all sing-
can produce very high sound pressure levels immediately ers with a single harmonic. This is because some singers
outside the mouth. The technique used requires a good might be tuning their resonance to the nth harmonic and
signal-to-noise ratio and this requires that the sound pressure other singers to the (n⫹1)th harmonic, and consequently the
level produced by the injected broadband signal, at each in- average would not coincide with a harmonic. This problem
jected frequency, should be comparable with that produced can be overcome by examining 兩 ⌬ f 兩 , the absolute difference
by the singing. As the broad band signal has many frequency between a resonance and the nearest harmonic. Once R1
components, the sound pressure level may become high exceeds f 0 , a resonance will always lie within ⫾ f 0 /2 of a
enough to cause distortion in the microphones used. Al- harmonic. If the resonance frequencies are distributed ran-
though the distortion is small, the technique is rather sensi- domly with frequency rather than tuned, then the average
tive to it. Subjects were asked to sing without vibrato be- 兩 ⌬ f 兩 would be expected to be close to f 0 /4. On the other
cause this causes a smearing of the harmonics of the voice hand, where resonance tuning occurs, the average 兩 ⌬ f 兩
signal that can obscure the tract resonances. No subjects would be expected to be small with negligible dependence
complained or appeared to be worried by the presence of the on f 0 .
broadband signal nor the request to sing piano and senza
A. The tuning of R 1
vibrato. Measurements were made in a quiet room with low
reverberance. Reproducibility was measured by asking each For each vowel and over the lower pitch range, f 0 is less
singer to sing the vowel /Ä/ in hard at pitch A4 before and than the value of R1 and the resonances R1 and R2 for each
after each scale. The standard deviation of the resonance vowel are held approximately constant, independent of pitch
frequencies of these reproducibility measurements, averaged 共Fig. 3兲. This is the result that one would expect for speech,
across all singers, was thus found to be ⫾25 Hz (R1), ⫾60 because (R1,R2) characterizes vowels. However, once f 0
Hz (R2), ⫾60 Hz (R3), and ⫾90 Hz (R4). The reproduc- exceeds this value of R1, the value of R1 for the individual
ibility for an individual singer was better than the variation singers, and also for the average over all singers, increases
among different singers. with increasing f 0 . This trend continues to 1 kHz for the
vowels that do not use lip rounding 共/Ä/ in hard and /// in
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION heard兲, but for the vowels that use lip rounding 共/Å/ in hoard
Figure 2 provides two examples of the measured ratio and /É/ in who’d兲, the data fall below the tuning line near 1
p open / p closed . One of the subjects was asked to sing the kHz. This may be because, with the lips rounded, it is un-
vowel /É/ 共in who’d兲 at pitches C5 共523 Hz—near the middle comfortable or anatomically impossible to raise R1 to 1 kHz.
of her range兲 and C6 共1046 Hz—near the top of her range兲. The tuning line R1⫽ f 0 lay within the standard devia-
For C5, the first six harmonics of the voice are visible. It is tions of the data in the approximate range 600 to 1000 Hz.
apparent that, even at this modest pitch, it is difficult to es- There was variation between the singers; some consistently
timate the tract resonances from the voice signal, simply be- tuned R1 to a frequency just above f 0 whereas others dis-
cause the spacing between harmonics 共here 523 Hz兲 is too played no obvious pattern. The average value of R1 was,
great. However, the resonances of the vocal tract are clearly however, consistently slightly higher than f 0 and this sup-
seen in the broad band signal. R1 for this vowel and singer ports the idea that vocal fold vibration is enhanced when the
was about 420 Hz at low pitches around C4 共261 Hz兲. When vocal tract presents an inertive load 共Titze, 1988兲. There was
this vowel was sung at C5, R1 has increased to a value no systematic difference between professionals and
slightly higher than the f 0 for C5. When the subject was students—however, the lack of precise tuning in some sub-
asked to sing the same vowel at C6, her values of R1 to R4 jects might be a partial consequence of singing softly.
have all increased. R1 and f 0 now coincide to within ⬃20 It is possible that singers might tune R1 to match the
Hz, thus suggesting that it is possible for them to match quite second harmonic of f 0 at lower pitches. However, examina-
closely. Again it is apparent that the resonances of the tract tion of 兩 ⌬ f 兩 over the range pitch A3 共220 Hz兲 to A4 共440 Hz兲
2436 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 116, No. 4, Pt. 1, October 2004 Joliveau et al.: Resonance tuning by sopranos
Downloaded 11 Oct 2013 to 128.197.27.9. Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://asadl.org/terms
FIG. 3. The average vocal tract resonances for the four vowels studied, as a function of f 0 . The vertical bars indicate the standard deviations. The dotted lines
indicate the relationship R⫽n f 0 , where n is the integer indicated.
found no evidence of systematic tuning for either the profes- result of the fact that, while R2 depends primarily on tongue
sionals or the students. configuration, it also depends somewhat on mouth opening
共Fant, 1973兲: consequently the tuning of R1 can also vary
B. The tuning of R2 R2. Figure 4 indicates that the overall trend is an increase in
Once f 0 exceeds the normal value of R1, there is a sys- 兩 ⌬ f 兩 with f 0 : as the separation of harmonics ( f 0 ) increases
tematic increase of R2 with f 0 , but it is proportionally the resonance tends to lie further from the nearest harmonic,
smaller than that measured for R1. This may be simply the as would be expected in the absence of tuning. The local
FIG. 4. The average value of 兩 ⌬ f 兩 , the absolute value of the difference between R2 and the closest harmonic of f 0 , plotted vs f 0 for each vowel. The vertical
bars indicate the standard deviations.
J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 116, No. 4, Pt. 1, October 2004 Joliveau et al.: Resonance tuning by sopranos 2437
Downloaded 11 Oct 2013 to 128.197.27.9. Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://asadl.org/terms
FIG. 6. Changes in position on the vowel plane as pitch is varied. The center
of each ellipse gives the mean values of R1 and R2, and the slope of the
major axis is the correlation between R2 and R1 for that vowel. The lengths
of the semi-axes indicate the standard deviations calculated in those direc-
tions. The ellipses with solid borders are for the pitch range A3 to A4. At
these low pitches, the vowels are well separated and their relative positions
lie within the range typical for Australian English. The ellipses with dashed
borders are for the pitch range G5 to B5. is a measure of the confusion
length, the characteristic separation in the vowel plane at which vowels
become confused.
FIG. 5. The average value of 兩 ⌬ f 兩 , the absolute value of the difference changes in the vicinity of the larynx that are related to pro-
between R3 or R4 and the closest harmonic of f 0 , plotted vs. f 0 and ducing high f 0 .
averaged over all vowels. The vertical bars indicate the standard deviations.
The singers’ formant refers to a prominent peak in the
The relationship 兩 ⌬ f 兩 ⫽ f 0 /4 that would be expected in the absence of tuning
is indicated by a dashed line. sound spectrum around 3 kHz 共Sundberg, 2001; Weiss et al.,
2001兲. This corresponds to the average measured value of
R3. We have not performed a study of speech for sopranos
minima around 700 Hz for Ä and 600 Hz for Å correspond to and so cannot comment on whether R3, R4, and R5 are
the frequency at which the line R⫽2 f 0 crosses the curve clustered differently during singing. Nor can we determine
R2( f 0 ). whether this peak is associated with a trained voice.
It must be remembered that the subjects in this study,
although instructed to sing in their trained Western classical
C. The tuning of R 3 – R 5 singing style, were singing softly without vibrato. The pos-
sibility thus exists that sopranos singing at full volume will
The proportional variation in R3, R4, and R5 with fre-
indulge in additional and more precise control of resonances
quency is not very strong 共see Fig. 3兲, and showed no evi-
to increase the sound level produced. Such effects might be
dence of resonance tuning to match harmonics of f 0 . Be-
more important for singers at the very top of their profession.
cause the results were similar for all vowels studied, Fig. 5
shows the average 兩 ⌬ f 兩 as a function of f 0 for R3 and R4. In
D. Consequences for vowel intelligibility
these data, the lines of best fit indicate that 兩 ⌬ f 兩 ⫽0.24f 0 ,
0.23f 0 , and 0.20f 0 for R3, R4, and R5, respectively. This Vowels are commonly represented on the (F2,F1) or
suggests that the sopranos in this study did not significantly (R2,R1) plane, where, in accordance with phonetic tradi-
tune their higher resonances when singing softly. tions, the axes are reversed. Figure 6 shows how tuning R1
Despite the absence of tuning in the higher resonances, close to f 0 moves the vowels studied in this plane. In the low
there is a small but systematic increase in R3 and R4 for all range of f 0 , the resonances of the vowels are well separated
vowels. R3 increased with increasing f 0 for all singers and and their relative positions are consistent with those for nor-
vowels, with an average value of R3 on f 0 ⫽0.48⫾0.39. The mal speech 共Donaldson et al., 2003兲. In the high pitch range,
variation of R4 with f 0 was more varied, and in some mea- all are shifted in the direction of increasing R1 and R2 and
surements R4 even decreased slightly with increasing f 0 . their separation is reduced, especially in the R1 direction. At
However, the average regression of R4 on f 0 was similar and high pitch, the vowels converge and overlap. Their separa-
equal to 0.46⫾0.38. These increases are observed across the tions become comparable with the confusion length , the
whole range studied, and not merely across the range over characteristic separation in the vowel plane at which vowels
which R1 is tuned. Perhaps these variations are related to become confused. 关To date, this distance has only been mea-
2438 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 116, No. 4, Pt. 1, October 2004 Joliveau et al.: Resonance tuning by sopranos
Downloaded 11 Oct 2013 to 128.197.27.9. Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://asadl.org/terms
sured for speech and for French vowels 共Dowd et al., 1997兲, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
whence the shown here. It is also likely that our perceptual We thank our volunteer subjects and the Australian Re-
categorization is modified when listening at high pitch.兴 This search Council for support. We would also like to thank Pro-
movement and convergence of vowels may contribute to the fessor Ron Scherer for his helpful comments.
well-known difficulty in identifying vowels sung in the high
range by sopranos 共Berlioz, 1844; Scotto di Carlo and Ger- Benolken, M., and Swanson, C. 共1990兲. ‘‘The effect of pitch-related changes
main, 1985; Benolken and Swanson, 1990兲 and might even on the perception of sung vowels,’’ J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 87, 1781–1785.
be one of the reasons why opera houses often use surtitles Berlioz, H. 共1844兲. Grand traité d’instrumentation et d’orchestration mod-
ernes, translated by M. C. Clarke 共Novello, London, 1882兲.
even for operas in the native language of their audiences. Donaldson, T., Wang, D., Smith, J., and Wolfe, J. 共2003兲. ‘‘Vocal tract reso-
Difficulty in comprehending the vowels of the high soprano nances: a preliminary study of sex differences for young Australians,’’
voice cannot, however, be blamed on resonance tuning Acoust. Austral. 31, 95–98.
alone: once the spacing of harmonics approaches 1 kHz, it is Dowd, A., Smith, J. R., and Wolfe, J. 共1997兲. ‘‘Learning to pronounce vowel
sounds in a foreign language using acoustic measurements of the vocal
virtually impossible for a human ear 共or signal analysis兲 to tract as feedback in real time,’’ Lang. Speech 41, 1–20.
determine features of the spectral envelope with the precision Erickson, M. L., and D’Alfonso, A. E. 共2002兲. ‘‘A comparison of two meth-
required to resolve vowels in the 共F1,F2兲 plane. This impos- ods of formant frequency estimation for high-pitched voices,’’ J. Voice 16,
sibility or near impossibility is appreciated by listening to 147–171.
Epps, J., Smith, J. R., and Wolfe, J. 共1997兲. ‘‘A novel instrument to measure
recordings of ‘‘different’’ vowels at high pitch and, for this acoustic resonances of the vocal tract during speech,’’ Meas. Sci. Technol.
purpose, sound files have been placed on the web at http:// 8, 1112–1121.
www.phys.unsw.edu.au/⬃jw/soprane.html. Fant, G. 共1973兲. Speech Sounds and Features 共MIT, Cambridge, MA兲.
Joliveau, E., Smith, J., and Wolfe, J. 共2004兲. ‘‘Tuning of vocal tract reso-
Because the price of 共further兲 reduced intelligibility is
nance by sopranos,’’ Nature 共London兲 427, 116.
not great, it is not surprising that sopranos elect to tune R1 Lindblom, B. E. F., and Sundberg, J. E. F. 共1971兲. ‘‘Acoustical consequences
close to f 0 , thereby obtaining greater radiated power for a of lip, tongue, jaw, and larynx movement,’’ J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 50, 1166 –
given effort, and also perhaps avoiding the effects on vocal 1179.
Miller, D. G., Sulter, A. M., Schutte, H. K., and Wolf, R. F. 共1997兲. ‘‘Com-
timbre of having a fundamental whose amplitude varied parison of vocal tract formants in singing and non-periodic phonation,’’ J.
strongly from note to note or vowel to vowel. Voice 11, 1–11.
Monsen, R. B., and Engebretson, A. M. 共1983兲. ‘‘The accuracy of formant
frequency measurements: a comparison of spectrographic analysis and lin-
ear prediction,’’ J. Speech Hear. Res. 26, 89–97.
IV. CONCLUSIONS Scotto di Carlo, N., and Germain, A. 共1985兲. ‘‘A perceptual study of the
influence of pitch on the intelligibility of sung vowels,’’ Phonetica 42,
A technique is demonstrated that can precisely measure 188 –197.
the vocal tract resonances of sopranos during singing. The Sundberg, J. 共1974兲. ‘‘Articulatory interpretation of the ‘singing formant,’’’
results presented are, however, subject to the constraint that J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 55, 838 – 844.
the singers should sing softly without vibrato. In the lower Sundberg, J. 共1975兲. ‘‘Formant technique in a professional female singer,’’
Acustica 32, 89–96.
part of their range, the vocal tract resonances of sopranos Sundberg, J. 共1977兲. ‘‘The acoustics of the singing voice,’’ Sci. Am. March,
trained in the Western classical tradition have frequencies 82–91.
that vary little with pitch. However, once f 0 exceeds this Sundberg, J. 共1987兲. The Science of the Singing Voice 共Northern Illinois
normal value of R1, R1 is tuned so that R1 is close to f 0 , U.P., De Kalb, IL, 1987兲.
Sundberg, J. 共2001兲. ‘‘Level and centre frequency of the singer’s formant,’’
except at very high pitches for vowels that involve lip round- J. Voice 15, 176 –186.
ing. Over the pitch range in which R1 is tuned, R2 increases Sundberg, J., and Skoog, J. 共1997兲. ‘‘Dependence of jaw opening on pitch
a little, probably as an incidental consequence of the R1 and vowel in singers,’’ J. Voice 11, 301–306.
Titze, I. R. 共1988兲. ‘‘The physics of small-amplitude oscillations of the vocal
tuning. R3 and R4 increase systematically, but not strongly
folds,’’ J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 83, 1536 –1552.
over the whole soprano range. There is no evidence for the Weiss, R., Brown, W. S., and Morris, J. 共2001兲. ‘‘Singer’s formant in sopra-
tuning of R3, R4, or R5 to harmonics of f 0 . nos: fact or fiction?’’ J. Voice 15, 457– 468.
J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 116, No. 4, Pt. 1, October 2004 Joliveau et al.: Resonance tuning by sopranos 2439
Downloaded 11 Oct 2013 to 128.197.27.9. Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://asadl.org/terms