Assessing Acoustic Parameters in Early Music and Romantic Operatic Singing

Silvia Capobianco; Andrea Nacci; Orietta Calcinoni; Luca Bruschini; Stefano Berrettini; Pasquale Bottalico

doi:10.1016/j.jvoice.2023.02.009

Assessing Acoustic Parameters in Early Music and Romantic Operatic Singing

J Voice. 2023 Mar 31:S0892-1997(23)00041-3. doi: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2023.02.009. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Silvia Capobianco¹, Andrea Nacci², Orietta Calcinoni³, Luca Bruschini², Stefano Berrettini², Pasquale Bottalico⁴

Affiliations

¹ Otolaryngology, Audiology, and Phoniatrics Unit, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy. Electronic address: silviacapobianco.md@gmail.com.
² Otolaryngology, Audiology, and Phoniatrics Unit, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
³ Private Practice: Voice & Music Professionals Care Team-VMPCT Milan, Italy.
⁴ Department of Speech and Hearing Science, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Illinois.

PMID: 37005127
DOI: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2023.02.009

Abstract

Objective: Since the recent early music (EM) revival, a subset of singers have begun to specialize in a style of singing that is perceptually different from the more "mainstream" romantic operatic (RO) singing style. The aim of this study is to characterize EM with respect to RO singing in terms of its vibrato characteristics and the singer's formant cluster.

Study design: This study presents a within-subject experimental design.

Methods: Ten professional singers (5 F; 5M) versed in both EM and RO repertoire were enrolled in the study. Each singer recorded the first 10 bars of the famous Aria, "Amarilli Mia Bella" (Giulio Caccini, 1602) a cappella, in RO and EM styles, in random order. Three sustained notes were extracted from the acoustical recordings and were analyzed using the free user-friendly software Biovoice to extract five parameters: vibrato rate, vibrato extent, vibrato jitter (J_vib), vibrato shimmer, and quality ratio (QR), an estimation of the singer's formant power.

Results: Vibrato in EM singing was characterized by a higher rate, a smaller extent, and less regular cycle-cycle period duration (higher J_vib) compared to RO singing. As in previous studies, RO singing presented a more prominent singer's formant, as indicated by a smaller QR.

Conclusions: Acoustical analysis of some vibrato characteristics and the Singer's Formant significantly differentiated EM from RO singing styles. Given the acoustical distinctions between EM and RO styles, future scientific and musicological studies should consider distinguishing between the two styles rather than using a singular term for and description of Western Classical singing.

Keywords: Acoustics; Early music; Opera; Singer's formant; Singing; Vibrato.