Lloyd, Barry, Randy, Michael, and List,
I had a conversation with Dr. Austin tonight to try and get a
definitive answer on the subject(VP/Palate) from a voice scientist
perspective. I showed him a few of the emails from the list. He
said that he would go with what the Zemlin book said in regard to the
fact that when the palate is high then the VP must be closed.
Quoting Austin from the "Journal of Voice"-'97:
"Acoustic coupling of the nasal passages to the rest of the
vocal tract is controlled by the velum and associated structures.
When the muscles controlling the position of the velum are relaxed
and the velum is lowered, the velopharyngeal port is opened and the
air cavity of the nasal passages is acoustically coupled to the vocal
tract. When the velum is high and the velopharyngeal port is closed,
the nasal passages are acoustically isolated from the vocal tract."
The title of the article is: "Movement of the Velum During Speech
and Singing in Classically Trained Singers." I think it speaks
directly to the conversation we're currently having- so it's worth
checking out. Austin tested the movement of the VP with a
photodetector. It is basically two optic fibers inserted paranasally
to record the amount of light transmitted through the VP.
Here is an interesting thing I recently read in the recent NATS
Journal. Quoting now: "RM's reputation as a scientist and his
profound grasp of scientific principles........." Through attending
the Oberlin workshop and reading his books many times over, I'd say
the latter comment is QUITE appropriate. However, the "reputation as
a SCIENTIST" comment is stretching it a bit too far, considering both
of RM's degrees are in PERFORMANCE! He is without question a
brilliant pedagogue who has done immense good for this field. But,
if I got under the hood of my Miata and rebuilt the engine this
weekend- could I call myself a "mechanical engineer" when I had
finished the job?
Lloyd, you responded to a post I wrote several weeks back saying
that the study by Bill Vennard done in'71 was- dated. Listen to
these dates from SOS on the VP issue: House and Stevens, 1956/ Bjork
1961/ Zwitman 1973/ Fritzell, 1979. It appears that the sources
which RM quotes from are also- dated! :)
Back to VP closure (sorry, I want to write about too many things
tonight): Perhaps science has made some advances(in more recent
years) by experiments done by trained scientists in the field of
vocal pedagogy. This is an excellent topic for discussion and we may
never hear a definitive answer on this issue.
The list is great practice for my DMA oral exams--so thanks everyone!!
Take Care All,
Taylor L. Ferranti
DMA Candidate in Vocal Pedagogy
Louisiana State University
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