Group 2 – The Voice is a Musical Instrument

Hello listeners, this Group 2’s presentation on THE VOICE in blog format.

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Group 2 – John Close, Philip Crane, John D’Arcy, Shannon Doherty, Paul Elliot

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Anatomy of the Voice – Paul Elliott

The voice box contains various anatomical features that work together to create the characteristic sonic qualities of a human voice.

- The vocal ligaments
- Cricoid and thyroid cartilages
- The Vocalis muscle (used to control the pitch of the sound)
- The Vocal folds (used to alter phonation)

A video showing the inner workings of the voice box

What characterizes the sound of a voice?

Formants
- Resonant peaks in the vocal track
- Basis of vowel sounds
- Used for communication
- Also affects phonation
- Timbre

It has been scientifically found that classically trained singers create more formants than those found in a normal speaking voice. It has also been discovered that even in singing the same passages, there is a notable difference between the formants of trained and untrained singers.

Trained singers also develop their vocal projection techniques. These can include adjustments of posture to create a smoother, straighter path for airflow. The may also train their breathing support muscles to breath deeper and have greater control over the usage of breath.

Vocal Ranges

The male vocal range can roughly be defined between 85 Hz – 455 Hz. The femal vocal range can be found between 165 Hz and 1000 Hz. This gives an overall span of roughly E2 – C6 for the various vocal types.

The wide variety of noises the voice can make exceeds that of most standard musical instruments. However, some instruments can be made to sound like the voice through lyrical playing, or even physical adaptations of the instrument – e.g. using a ‘hat’ mute on a trumpet (so called because some players used to use their head wear to create the effect!).

If you want to find out more on the anatomy of the voice, check this out.

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The Voice is MORE than a musical instrument – John D’Arcy

Aside from it’s timbral capabilities; the voice’s use of language has strongly defined it’s role in many different musical genres. The voice’s ability to convey speech to the listener makes it much more powerful than a violin, and can make for a more ‘affected’ listening experience than one would have when faced with an instrumental piece.

Why did the voice start making music?

When music originated as an activity that humans could perform, it had a few main outlets for its use: entertainment, celebration, and religeous ceremony.
The voice (being the most rudimentary instrument) instantly became the basis of these musical past times – and it seems that while music as a ‘system’ developed, the language used as ‘lyrics’ became a fundamental part of the voice’s performance.

Rest, sweet nymphs, let golden sleep
Charm your starbrighter eyes,
Whiles my lute the watch doth keep
With pleasing sympathies.
Lulla lullaby, lullaby!
(‘Rest Sweet Nymph’ by Francis Pilkington (c.1570-1638) )

The Western music world recognises the medieval masses, motets and madrigals as some of the earliest Western music we can trace. Above is an example of some early lyrics from a madrigal by Francis Pilkington. It belongs to the Secular face of the two-sided coin which existed back then – one side was Sacred, and one side was Secular.

As you can see in the lyric, the language is very romantic. It belongs to the mythical age of Shakespeare where composers wrote about fairies and witches. The term ‘love’ was like a golden challice kept high in the clouds among the Gods where the ordinary people didn’t dare tread. Basically – the lyrics did not concern ‘real life’.

This was a trend which seemed to continue through the Baroque era (through chorales and passions) to the Classical era (Operas) and on to the Romantic era, where the German ‘leider’ started to define the concept which we now call the ‘song’.

Let Nimrod, the mighty hunter,
Bind a leopard to the altar
And consecrate his spear to the Lord.
(‘Rejoice in the lamb’ by Benjamin Britten – words by Christopher Smart)
The lyric above comes from Britten’s ‘Rejoice in the Lamb’ in which Christopher Smart expels his lunacy-tinged outlook on his own religion. This example highlights the a few things. First off, the ‘classical’ composers’ trend to use someone else’s lyrics (echoed in pop music via Elton John/Bernie Taupin, Burt Bacharach/Hal David etc). Secondly, it demonstrates the 20th Century move into more characteristic lyrics, i.e. breaking the rules of what came before.

Hey Charley I’m pregnant
And living on 9-th Street
Right above a dirty bookstore
Off Cuclid Avenue
And I stopped taking dope
And I quit drinking whiskey
And my old man plays the trombone
And works out at the track.
(‘Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis’ by Tom Waits)

At this point I move into the 20th Century ‘pop’ song – and although Tom Waits isn’t exactly what most people would label ‘pop’, it lies in the realm of commercial music (or ‘music that people enjoy’ or ‘not art music’… well… some people enjoy art music… ARGH… what’s in a name??).

SO… at this stage we have singers telling us about THEIR lives, and the happy/sad/exciting/sinister events that happen in their day. Tom Waits is writing from the perspective of a prostitute who lives “right above a dirty book store”. Now this is ‘real life’. This is a great example of the trend for gritty realism in the modern song. It defies the whimsical romanticism of the old. Of course, many purveyors of the ‘pop’ song use the best of both worlds, and have detailed, realistic lyrics in the verse of the song and zoom out for all-inclusive, romantic visions in the chorus. Check out THE BEATLES.

See I reckon you’re about an 8 or a 9,
Maybe even 9 and a half in four beers time.
That blue top shop top you’ve got on IS nice,
Bit too much fake tan though – but yeah you score high.
(‘Fit but you Know it’ by The Streets (Mike Skinner))

Mike Skinner speaks to his audience in a voice that they understands. He talks of easyjet holidays, binge-drinking and casual drug use. And the girls working in Topshop love it. Dizzee Rascal’s new album features lyrics telling the listener to “Suck my dick”. Gosh, he really is a rascal. But this says a lot about the how the boundaries of what an artist can convey to a listener in the modern musical climate.

Some people regard lyrics as poetry. But when does poetry become music? On the latest Cribs album (Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever), the band play the backing for a poem, read by Sonic Youth’s Lee Ronaldo. In essence, it is a spoken-word track (‘Be Safe), but it bares resemblance to the sonic delivery of those in the current ‘street poet’ idiom. This genre itself blurs the lines between poetry and Rap – it seems that the 21st Century melting pot of creativity is playing havoc with our artistic pigeon-holes.

Lyrics bring a different dimension to music – as opposed to instrumental music. Lyrics can bring a cinematic quality to the listening experience. Lyrics can provide social commentary to create a biased listening experience, and a more affecting listening experience. The can turn music, which can be an interpretive artistic format, into a totally literal medium for creative expression. In a way it’s like a painting:

An instrumental piece portrays colours, space and even different shapes. If you add a vocal parts with lyrics, you can see detailed lines. Suddenly the shapes turn into people and scenery that you can relate to.

That’s my take on it. Lyrics change the rules of music. If you want to find our more about this subject start listening to songs in a different light.

And remember: a clarinet will never tell you to suck its dick.

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Sonic Experimentation using the voice – Philip Crane

Scat

Apparently first used by Louis Armstrong, the ‘Scat’ technique allowed vocalists to enter the realm of improvised music. By removing words and replacing them with any assortment of vowel and consonant noises, Scat let jazz singers in particular join in with the fun of ad libbing. The loosened restrictions of what language could be used allowed the voice to be used like a guttural instrument. An example of Ella Fitzgerald singing amazing scat (she starts around 0:44)

The influence of scat has led to the voice being commonly accepted outside its lyrical funtion in popular music. However, the word ‘accepted’ doesn’t really apply to this example, which sounds uncannily like Ella Fitzgerald.

The Voice is a sampler

The amazing timbral and phonetic abilities of the voice combined with the Human memory make for a great ‘sampler’. The guy in the Polic Academy movies isn’t alone in recreating everyday sounds with his gob. A great example of the technical possibilities of vocal ‘sampling is the choir performance in the Honda Civic Car advertisement. Here is a video of the rehearsal process for you to check out.

One of the most popular practices of this style of performance is beat boxing. The guy in this video is performing infront of a massive crowd – and they’re loving it.

The Voice in Art Music
The voice is often creatively used in modern art music. Diamanda Galas is known for her intense performances of vocal experimentation.

SARC recently hosted a performance of ‘Iminana – From Mother to Smother’ in which the female performer conveyed the intese emotions of a omther killing her child through sparing words and harsh noises.

Unfortunately before our presentation we were not aware of Joan la Barbara. She performed at SARC last Thursday and demonstrated amazing vocal experimentation with the Ne(x)tworks Trio.
Finally… art music would not be the same without Napalm Death’s lovely vocal timbres!

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Alternative Techniques in foreign cultures – Shannon Doherty

Throat singing / Overtone singing

Throat singing is a peculiar vocal art. It allows a singer to simultaneously sing with two, indeed, sometimes even with four voices. The technique is traditionally found in Central Asia.

A singer produces a fundamental tone, then constrains part of throat called false vocal chords. The singer then extracts overtones by varying the shape of his oral parts and pharynx

This results in two, three, or even four distinct tones being projected. The highest overtone resembles the sound of a flute

There are three types of Throat / Overtone singing
• Chömei
This is the easiest of the three to learn. It is the first step on the way to developing the full technique.

• Sygyt
To practise Sygyt you must master Chömei

• Kargyra
This is an extremely low sound. To get an idea of Kargyraa imagine a voice that resembles the roaring of a lion.

Amazing Grace in throat singing

To find out more go to www.throatsinging.com

Yodeling

Yodelling is a technique which involves changes in pitch from the vocal chest register to the head register.
It was actually developed in the Swiss Alps as a method of communication
As you may have heard, some of the techniques yodelling are often used in American bluegrass and country music. Yeehaw!

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Technological enhancements of the voice – John Close

Amplification

In the 20th Century the voice got a lot louder – the invention of the microphone and the amplifier meant that we are now able to hear voices from far distances and at high volumes

Recording
We are also able to listen to voices that were recorded in different places and at different times. We can also colour the sound of the voice through different types of microphones and different production techniques.

Production techniques

Sampling – We can cut and slice vocal parts to create new songs. Kanye West loves doing this. He took an old blues singer and sampled it in his song Golddigga
Effects – We can use Eq, Compression, and loads of other effects to the voice to enhance or distort it. This habit of altering the voice in the studio may have led the listening public to ‘expect’ the voice to come to their ears through a stream of compression and equalization.
Autotune – You don’t need to sing in tune anymore, because we can fix it in the mix.
Vocoders/talkboxes – Daft Punk have made Vocoders famous with its use in songs like ‘Around the World’. The sound of the voice is altered by the pitch played on the keyboard. Similar effects can be achieved with talkbox pedals for the guitar.
Voice simulation – We can use software to recreate the sound of instruments quite easily. It is a different matter when trying to create the complexities of the voice, with its unlimited possibilities of timbre and phonations. This is changing however, as the enhancements in technology are bringing us closer to realistically replicating the human characteristics of the voice.

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Cheers for reading this far

John, John, Phil, Paul and Shannon