Summary
Introduction
Vocal registers and the frequency region where registration events occur, the passaggio,
have been in focus of scientific research for almost 200 years. In professional tenors,
it has been shown before that singing across the passaggio avoiding a register shift
and therefore using their stage voice above the passaggio (SVaP) is associated with
greater vocal stability than a register change to the falsetto. However, it is unclarified
how much different loudness conditions contribute to this vocal stability.
Material and methods
Six professional tenors were asked to perform four pitch glides from A3 to A4 (220-440
Hz) on the vowel [i:]. These glides included (1) the passaggio from modal register
to falsetto. The following glides into SVaP were performed under different loudness
conditions, (2) mezzoforte (average loudness), (3) pianissimo (as quietly as possible),
and (4) fortissimo (the loudest possible). During phonation, high speed videoendoscopy
(HSV), electroglottography, and audio signals were recorded simultaneously. The glottal
area waveform was derived based on the HSV material.
Results
Modal to falsetto transitions were associated with relatively low sound pressure level
and rise of open quotients (OQ) for the falsetto. Transitions to SVaP showed a clear
dependence on the intended loudness. The OQs were lower the louder the task was. There
was no clear evidence that transitions with softer voice showed greater stability
of vocal fold oscillation patterns than louder tasks.
Conclusions
The vocal fold oscillation pattern show- differences among various loudness conditions
within the tenors’ passaggio but no clear differences with regard to oscillatory stability.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 14, 2021
Accepted:
December 15,
2020
Footnotes
Matthias Echternach (grant Ec409/1-2) and Michael Döllinger (grant DO 1247/8-1) are supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).
Identification
Copyright
© 2021 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
