Focusing on the female voice in middle to high-pitch ranges, the authors observed that belters use vocal tract resonances (formants) differently from classically-trained (opera and art song) singers. Hence, it appears that a singer of harmonically-based singing styles may seek to obtain both stability and uniform reinforcement of the harmonics by carefully selecting a favorable vocal tract configuration.Īn insightful exposition to contrasting styles was given by Schutte and Miller (1993). Pitch jumps, subharmonics, chaotic vocal fold vibration, and other bifurcations can occur that are (in part) attributable to acoustic loading by the vocal tract. However, when any harmonic that carries a significant portion of the source energy passes through a formant (a vocal tract resonance), vocal fold vibration can also be destabilized. In two recent investigations ( Titze et al., 2008 Titze, 2008a) it has been shown that source energy in phonation (vocal fold vibration and the associated glottal airflow) can be significantly increased by vocal tract interaction. Because no source-vocal tract interaction is claimed in linear coupling, linear source-filter theory as traditionally applied to speech cannot account for source strengthening by vocal tract coupling, nor can it account for source instabilities and bifurcations in vocal fold oscillation related to vowel selection. Speaking vowels are modified and adjusted not only to create a variety of timbres, but also to support the sound source in self-sustained oscillation by providing favorable acoustic reactance ( Titze, 1988a Fletcher, 1993). Many of the pedagogical approaches to teaching singing styles are based on the concept that there are preferred vowel configurations for a given pitch ( Appelman, 1967 Vennard, 1967 Miller, 1986, 2008). Examples of lip openings from four well-known artists are used to infer vocal tract area functions and the corresponding reactances. The vocal tract shapes provide collective reinforcement to multiple harmonics in the form of inertive supraglottal reactance and compliant subglottal reactance. Both the fundamental and the second harmonic are then kept below the first formant. Belting, on the other hand, uses vowels that are consistently modified toward the megaphone (trumpet-like) mouth shape. This allows all the harmonics except the fundamental to be “lifted” over the first formant. It is hypothesized that operatic singing uses vowels that are modified toward an inverted megaphone mouth shape for transitioning into the high-pitch range. Several stylized vocal tract shapes (caricatures) are discussed that form the bases of these styles. Nonlinear source-filter theory is applied to explain some acoustic differences between two contrasting male singing productions at high pitches: operatic style versus jazz belt or theater belt.
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