SUMMARY
Background and objectives
The valleculae can be seen as a pair of side branches of the human vocal tract like
the piriform fossae. While the acoustic properties of the piriform fossae have been
explored in detail, there is little evidence of full exploration of the acoustic properties
of the valleculae. A recent investigation (Vampola, Horáček, & Švec, 2015), using
a finite element model of a single vowel /a/, suggests that the valleculae created
two antiresonances and two resonances in the high frequency region (above 4kHz) along
with those produced by the piriform sinuses. In the current study, we investigate,
in multiple vowels, the acoustic influences of the valleculae in singing voice, using
3-D printed vocal tracts.
Method
MRI data were collected from an operatic tenor singing English vowels /a/, /u/, /i/.
The images of each vowel were segmented and edited to create a pair of tracts, where
one is the original and one had the valleculae digitally removed.The printed tracts
were then placed atop a vocal tract organ loudspeaker, excited by white noise. Recordings
were made with a microphone placed in front of the mouths of the tracts, to measure
their frequency responses.
Results
Dimensional changes were observed in valleculae of different vowels, with the long-term
average spectra of the recordings illustrating clear differences between the frequency
responses of the va-nova (valleculae – no valleculae) pairs, which varies with vowels.
Conclusion
The experiment demonstrates the dynamic
1
The dynamic nature means changes during running vocalization. Note that the analysis
of single vowels is static, but when it comes to the variation across vowels, the
analysis is on the dynamic effect. The intention is trying to find out how valleculae
and their acoustic consequences change in running vocalisation, which is about the
temporal change, where the vowels are snapshots of the running vocalization.
1The dynamic nature means changes during running vocalization. Note that the analysis
of single vowels is static, but when it comes to the variation across vowels, the
analysis is on the dynamic effect. The intention is trying to find out how valleculae
and their acoustic consequences change in running vocalisation, which is about the
temporal change, where the vowels are snapshots of the running vocalization.
nature of the shapes of the valleculae in the human vocal tract and its acoustic
consequences. It provides evidence that the valleculae have similar acoustic properties
to the piriform fossae but with larger variations, and in some cases can influence
acoustically the frequency region below 4kHz. The results suggest that large volume
valleculae have the potential to impede to some extent the acoustic effect of the
singers formant cluster and small valleculae may do the reverse. Since the volume
of the valleculae is observed to be largely dependent on tongue movement and also
with changes to the uttered vowel, it can be assumed that the high frequency energy,
including that within the singer's formant region, could be vowel dependent. Strategies
to control valleculae volumes are likely to be highly relevant to voice pedagogy practice
as well as singing performance.Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 01, 2021
Accepted:
December 9,
2020
Identification
Copyright
© 2020 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
