Summary
Background
During the Covid-19 pandemic, singing activities were restricted due to several super-spreading
events that have been observed during rehearsals and vocal performances. However,
it has not been clarified how the aerosol dispersion, which has been assumed to be
the leading transmission factor, could be reduced by masks which are specially designed
for singers.
Material and Methods
Twelve professional singers (10 of the Bavarian Radio-Chorus and two freelancers,
seven females and five males) were asked to sing the melody of the ode of joy of Beethoven's
9th symphony “Freude schöner Götterfunken, Tochter aus Elisium” in D-major without
masks and afterwards with five different singers’ masks, all distinctive in their
material and proportions. Every task was conducted after inhaling the basic liquid
from an e-cigarette. The aerosol dispersion was recorded by three high-definition
video cameras during and after the task. The cloud was segmented and the dispersion
was analyzed for all three spatial dimensions. Further, the subjects were asked to
rate the practicability of wearing the tested masks during singing activities using
a questionnaire.
Results
Concerning the median distances of dispersion, all masks were able to decrease the
impulse dispersion of the aerosols to the front. In contrast, the dispersion to the
sides and to the top was increased. The evaluation revealed that most of the subjects
would reject performing a concert with any of the masks.
Conclusion
Although, the results exhibit that the tested masks could be able to reduce the radius
of aerosol expulsion for virus-laden aerosol particles, there are more improvements
necessary to enable the practical implementations for professional singing.
Key Words
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: October 02, 2021
Accepted:
August 26,
2021
Publication stage
In Press Corrected ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2021 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
