Posted on 01/07/2004 5:08:09 PM PST by blam
Revealed: why you can't understand what an opera soprano is singing
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
(Filed: 08/01/2004)
Physicists have discovered the reason why even operas sung in English are hard to follow. A study has found that in order for sopranos to be heard above the sound of a large symphony orchestra, they tune into resonances in their vocal tract to amplify the sound at the high end of their range.
Although this enables them to make a sound that can fill the Albert Hall, it sacrifices intelligibility because the vowels sung by sopranos in full voice all sound the same.
The discovery, reported today in Nature, was made by Dr John Smith, Elodie Joliveau and Prof Joe Wolfe at the University of New South Wales, Australia. "For sopranos, the price of being heard is a loss in comprehensibility," said Dr Smith.
The physicists studied nine sopranos with an average classical training of nine years and followed up the suspicion that the singers used a resonance effect to boost high notes. "The evidence for this is that they tend to open the mouth and smile more as they sing successively higher notes," Dr Smith said.
The vocal tract (including tongue and mouth) has several resonances that boost or amplify sounds produced in the larynx and the team measured the frequencies of resonances as the sopranos sang ascending scales. In the top half of their range (but not the bottom half), the singers did indeed tune one of the resonances to match the pitch they were singing, producing more sound for the same effort.
But the vowels end up sounding nearly the same, which makes words more difficult to understand, while consonants are affected to different degrees. "The tuning of resonances from their normal values means that different sounds such as la, lore, loo, ler and lee sound very much alike in the high register," said Dr Smith.
"What we've shown is that trained sopranos boost the sound from their vocal chords by 'tuning' or adjusting the shape of their vocal tract so it matches the pitch they are singing," said Prof Wolfe.
"The effect is a little like the amplifying effect you get by singing in the bathroom," he said, adding that even if this did not occur, "the vowels would be hard to distinguish because there just isn't enough frequency information at that high pitch." He added: "It's possibly one reason why local opera houses use surtitles even when the words to an opera are in English."
The effect has been remarked on before, notably by the 19th century French composer Berlioz, whose book about orchestration even warns opera composers to take it into account.
To sell CDs. Duh. =;^)
Thanks for your post...intesresting stuff therein.
Ciao!
Diva One
Ahem...
<Cliff Claven voice>
Eh...it's a little known fact that Mozart had wanted to do that very thing but as it turns out...
Radio Shack wouldn't be invented for several hundred more years.
</Cliff Claven voice>
One. She holds the bulb and the whole world revolves around her.
Of course, Scott Joplin thought that Treemoniasha was an opera. (It's good, but it is very much like Finian's Rainbow.)
You get one of my rare " pardons " and a request that you continue to enlighten us, with your superior knowledge of this topic. :-)
Complete self-centeredness.
Of course, I am nothing like that.....! ;)
Buona notte -
Diva One
By Pink Floyd?
Wow, I looked through their entire catalog and couldn't find that one....
Yes, I'm kidding.
Last I heard KDB's future wasn't too bright. There was talk of the UC Santa Barbara buying them just to keep them on the air. Sad.
I love the old ones too - Tosca is my favorite role to sing, and watch.
Who knew opera would be such a hot topic on Free Republic!
Thanks for the pardon :0
Diva One
Opera, Star Trek, G&S...FR is filled, to the brim,with people who have all kinds of different tastes and some are REAL expert on any topic, that comes down the pike. :-)
I think KDP might say that airing church sermons every Sunday morning puts a whole in the 24/7 claim.
http://www.wrr101.com/wrr_info/programs.shtml
By the way, DAMNED sorry that The Lovely Wife and I couldn't make the wedding. We do look forward to meeting you, so tell The Shrew to drag you down to NC on his next trip.
Interesting post, by the way; very interesting indeed.
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