Vocalist.org archive


From:  "Lloyd W. Hanson" <lloyd.hanson@n...>
"Lloyd W. Hanson" <lloyd.hanson@n...>
Date:  Thu Apr 12, 2001  7:20 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] THE AH VOWEL AND OPERATIC SINGING


Dear Caio and Vocalisters:

Thank you for your summary repeated below. It all sound very logical
and I would agree with much of it. However:


>1. Romance-language speakers perceive basically 5 vowels and put any
>vowels into those pre-conceived categories;

Is that not 7 vowels? It seems reasonable to include "awe" (IPA as
backward /c/) and "EH" (IPA as /E/

>2. As an example, Romance-language speakers tend to perceive words
>like 'live' and 'leave' as homophones due to those 5 vowel
>categories cited above;

Exactly correct. My experience with native Italians supports this,
for whatevet that is worth

>3. English speakers, on the other hand, have a wider range of vowel
>categories;

Yes, English has a total of 14 to 18 vowels depending on what
authority one uses. It is a at best a bastard language that has
many, many fathers.

>4. As a consequence, two vowel sounds may be perceived as being
>different by English speakers but as a single vowel sound by
>Romance-language speakers;

I understand.

>5. Italian, as a Romance language, shares those 5 vowel categories;

Or is it 7 vowels as I mention above?

>6. Italian opera was created to entertain or enlighten an
>Italian-speaking audience. As such, that audience perceives only
>those 5 vowel categories;

See above

>7. Italian opera has taken advantage of those categories in order to
>adapt vowel resonance and create harmonics necessary to project the
>voice above the orchestra. That's what an evolutionary sociologist,
>using a jargon adapted from evolutionary biologists, might call a
>cultural pre-adaptation, a.k.a. a big favorable coincidence! hehe

I am not sure about the cultural pre-adaptation idea but the first
part of this paragraph is partly true. Vowel sounds are identified
by the two resonance peaks that occur in their sonic spectrum. The
fundamental and its many partials which are produced by the vocal
folds, taken together, would be interpreted by most of us as a kind
of noise and not the sound of a human speaking or singing voice. The
standing waves that are created within the vocal tract dampen
(reduce) some of these partials and strengthen others in such a way
that two very strong resonance peaks are created. It is these
resonance peaks, called "vowel formants" that gives each vowel sound
its identity. These identities can be given many names and some
languages tend to lump similar vowels sounds into a few categories
while other languages tend to create many categories. Italian is an
example of the former and English an example of the latter.

>8. English opera singers have taken advantage of the development of
>Italian opera and applied their background in singing to both their
>Italian opera performances and their English-speaking opera;

Of course

>9. Most English speakers don't speak Italian, so vowel modifications
>in Italian operas are meaningless to them. Obviously, the same can't
>be said of operas in English;

I am not sure if I understand correctly what you mean here. Singers
who have English as their native language are perhaps more aware of
vowel modifications done by Italian singers because, to the English
speaking singer these modifications sound like different vowels.
When, for example, American singers discuss this with Italian singers
the Italian singers often deny changing vowel sounds. Instead they
say they are simply opening the sound a bit or closing it a bit. As
you have most correctly said, to the Italian it is the same basic
vowel. But to the American it is a different vowel because in
English, there are other vowels available and the American ear tends
to identify these different vowel sounds as different vowels.

But whether the Italian identifies vowel modifications as different
vowels or not, the reality is that each modification of a vowel
changes the frequency locations of its two resonance peaks, that is,
its formants. Three basic resonance matches should occur if one is
to achieve maximum efficiency of vocal production.
1 The vocal tract must be tuned to the fundamental or one of
the partials of the phonated sound, preferably the fundamental
because the is the strongest part of the phonated sound spectrum
2 The vocal tract must be tuned to the vowel formants for the
selected vowel. If the fundamental and partials of the phonated
pitch do not contain matches for the vowel formant frequencies of the
selected then, technically, that vowel cannot be produced on that
pitch and it must be modified slightly so that the vowel formants are
adjusted to match the fundamental or partials of the phonated pitch.
3 The vocal tract must be tuned to emphasize the "singers
formant", a resonance peak in the neighborhood of 2800-3200 Hrz. It
is believed that this resonance peak, which is at a higher frequency
than the vowel formants resonance peaks, is produced in the
aryepiglottic area of the pharynx which would explain the rationale
behind enlarging or widening the throat which is taught in many
classical singing techniques.

There is not doubt that this method of singing was developed out of
need to produce voices that could be heard above an orchestra. A
side note here is the distortion of technique that often occurs when
the orchestra is large and is not placed in a proper pit that gives
its sound fullness but controls its intensity so that the singer can
be heard. Wagner created a special theatre( Bayreuth) to make this
work correctly but when his operas are performed in the wrong venue
special singers need to be hired.

>10. If opera has perfection as its esthetic goal, as Lloyd put it
>some time ago and was openly supported by many Vocalisters, anything
>perceived as not perfect and accepted as such mars that goal and is
>therefore not related to opera;

?????

>11. As English speakers notice when a vowel in an English word is
>modified, vowel modifications are perceived as an imperfection to
>that audience. Therefore, vowel modifications must be avoided in
>English-speaking operas;

Not so. English speaking singers modify vowels because the acoustics
of vowels does not allow otherwise if the voice is to be heard and it
is not considered an imperfection. But to those learning to sing, it
does appear as a distortion of the spoken vowel. To the listener it
does not appear as a distortion

>12. THE ONLY WAY TO PREVENT THAT IS BY PERFORMING THOSE OPERAS IN
>SMALLER THEATERS, TO A SMALLER AUDIENCE AND WITH A SMALLER ORCHESTRA
>SO AS TO AVOID THE NECESSITY OF SUCH MODIFICATIONS.

Obviously, this is not an option and it is not practiced. But
amplification of the voice is an option because amplification
precludes a voice singing at maximum efficiency. In fact,
amplification does not allow a voice to sing with maximum efficiency.

>13. Not persecuting 12 as the way to reach the operatic esthetic
>ideal in 10 is not opera, as can be said of the usage of microphones
>on stage, etc, etc.

?????. Opera in English and other languages is not only succeeding
but growing by leaps and bounds in the United States. It is the fast
growing performance art in the USA. And though amplification is used
at times to overcome a venue that was not designed for opera, because
in the past opera was not very popular in the US, that is not yet the
norm.

>I think I got you, baby! hehe

I am sure we all appreciate the competition reflected in your last
statement but I choose to consider this forum as a discussion or even
an argument but never a competition.

Thanks for your summary.
--
Lloyd W. Hanson, DMA
Professor of Voice, Pedagogy
School of Performing Arts
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, AZ 86011




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