Lecture 22

One Last Musical Instrument

November 12, 2004

When did all of this start?

Our ability to make sounds was probably initially a way of warning others of danger.

It was also a way of calling to other members of the “clan .. pack ..”.

It is not clear what came first … speech or music. They probably developed together.

The first musical instrument was therefore probably (who really knows??) the almost human voice.

Verbal communication is probably the “glue” that allowed civilization to develop.

Again – warnings Calls to draw members of the

group together Calls to the opposite sex Music ---> seduction??

“smooth” sounds Pleasant voice fluctuations leads

to “song”

A Quick History We don’t know much about the good old days of BC. In 367 AD, The Council of Laodicia banned all

congregational singing so choir singing became necessary. Music was believed to be pretty “holy” and not to be trusted

in the hands of the common folk. In 600 AD, Pope Gregory set up schools to train choirs.

The Gregorian Chant probably evolved from this. Strong, versatile MALE voices were called for in this kind of

singing.

More Quick History

13th Century – Composers were also singers and music became the domain of “high pitched” male singers. Timbre specifics unknown. Perhaps nasal?

Chaucer: “Ful week she soong the service dyvyne, Entuned in hir nose full semely”

Or who knows???

Voice Registers

15th century Bass, Tenor, Alto, Descant (very high) Falsetto singing became popular

Renaissance Women’s voices became popular because

“only certain kinds of women” sang in public!

Sopranos became the rage. especially on HBO!

Next step was the castrato.

More Castrato – Positions Available, Somewhat difficult start but great $$$ potential.

The popularity of the motion picture "Farinelli" (1994) contributed tremendously to the current surge of interest for works originally written for castrati. Of course, a cruel and inhuman custom of castration has since long gone, the best we can hope for is a vocal approximation performed by sopranists, countertenors, mezzo-sopranos or female contraltos

ItHurts!

With the passage of time

More and more music for voice has been and is being written with an increasing complexity from generation to generation

Singing somewhat followed the way that musical instruments developed.

OK .. enough history … all of this and more is in the textbook (Johnston).

Vocal Range – Fundamental Pitch

♩♩

♩♩ ♩♩

♩♩

♩♩

♩♩ ♩♩

♩♩

♩♩

♩♩

♩♩

♩♩

Bass Bass EE22 – E – E44

BaritonBaritone Ge G22 – –

GG44

Tenor Tenor CC22 – C – C55

ContralContraltoDtoD33 – –

DD55

Mezzo-Mezzo-SopranSopranoEoE33 – A – A55

SopranSopranoGoG33 – D – D66

♂♂:: ♀♀::

82 Hz82 Hz

329 329 HzHz

98 Hz98 Hz

392 392 HzHz

131 131 HzHz

523 523 HzHz

147 147 HzHz

587 587 HzHz

165 165 HzHz

880 880 HzHz

196 196 HzHz

1175 1175 HzHz

Remember open and closed tube resonances??

BOTH ends open

Closed End

OpenEnd

Open Tubes

Standing waves are just like a string!

Ends are PRESSURE NODES

Resonant Frequencies are multiples of the fundamental.

These are the ONLY strong tones that can be played on this tube

The Human Open Pipe(s)

Open End of Tube

Flow

Variable

Tube Length

Vocal Chords Do it All!

Balloon Thing

OpenOpen

Spectral analysis of a female voice. Note that the peaks occur at multiples of about 270 Hz (C♯).

Vocal Range – Fundamental Pitch

How do they do that?????How do they do that?????

♩♩

♩♩ ♩♩

♩♩

♩♩

♩♩ ♩♩

♩♩

♩♩

♩♩

♩♩

♩♩

Bass Bass EE22 – E – E44

BaritonBaritone Ge G22 – –

GG44

Tenor Tenor CC22 – C – C55

ContralContraltoDtoD33 – –

DD55

Mezzo-Mezzo-SopranSopranoEoE33 – A – A55

SopranSopranoGoG33 – D – D66♂♂:: ♀♀::

82 Hz82 Hz

329 329 HzHz

98 Hz98 Hz

392 392 HzHz

131 131 HzHz

523 523 HzHz

147 147 HzHz

587 587 HzHz

165 165 HzHz

880 880 HzHz

196 196 HzHz

1175 1175 HzHz

Changing Frequency

Higher Frequencies - FALSETTO

Sound “shape” from vocal chords

Fourier Lived 1768-1830 Mathematician Fourier’s Theorem

ANY periodic function can be recreated as the SUM of oscillations at the frequencies represented by the harmonic series … f1, f2……. f425 ….

Joseph Fourier

Using Fourier’s Idea

=

An example . consider this shape:

Nine Terms

Your vocal tract

Has many different possible lengths. You adjust them with your muscles, your

tongue, and lots of other things. Your lungs literally make you a

“windbag” for the purpose of making sounds.

The vocal chords produce a periodic pressure wave that enters the vocal tract.

One Example

The component waves whose frequencies resonate with thelength of the “tube” are the ones that come out the loudest.

Articulated Speech

Suppose thisis how we make

a particularvowel sound

FORMANTFORMANT

Some Formant Combinations

Some Specific Formant Frequencies

We adjust the tube length using some feedback from the ear.

Because we sing WORDS, we need speech articulation

While the singing voices look like this.

So ………

The human voice is the ONLY instrument that can entertain itself!

It also is a beautiful sound because it is ours and we grew up with it.

And because it has lots of harmonic content.

We can adjust our fundamental tones to exactly match other voices … the chorus is born!

Next … the impact of electricity and magnetism on music and its performance