A cappella is a genre of music where the sound is only produced by the voice, no instrumentation. This may seem quite limiting, but the range of the human voice, not just in pitch, but in style as well, is amazing. For a standard four-part all male group, there are four voice parts. These are Tenor 1 (also known as Top), Tenor 2 (also known as Lead), Baritone, and Bass. A part is decided based off of things like range and strength in that range. Most groups also have one or more Beatboxers, or VP (Vocal Percussion). The VP adds an extra bit of flavor, and can complement a full-sounding group very well.
The three aspects of Phonetics are extremely important to an a cappella singer.
To start, articulatory phonetics focus on the production of speech sounds. This is the majority of what a group, or singer works on. A cappella singing can be very different from any other style of singing that usually involves a instrumental accompaniment. The “blend” of a group is extremely important, and the way to achieve a good blend starts with good articulation. One of the main things considered when auditions for a cappella groups come around is how well an auditionee will sound with a group. To test an auditionee’s blend, a group will typically have a few members sing with them to hear how they sound together. The first run through is not extremely helpful in deciding, but after that run, the music director may give some input to the auditionee. Some of this input will have to do with articulation, a common phrase being “match their vowels”, referring to the other singers. When a quartet lines up their vowels on a solid chord, it’s a beautiful sound, and producing that with your voice is one of the things thats make a cappella so fun.
Different genres of music call for different types of articulation. One style, barbershop music, is extremely dependant on good articulation from the group to sound great. Vowel matching is crucial, and typically the vowel quality is rounded, or aims to be. In a lot of a cappella, all of the singers besides the soloist, if there is one, aim to not stick out from one another in vowels, consonant placement, breathing patterns, etc., unless of course it is intentional.
Intonation is arguably the most important aspect of any singer in general, not just for a cappella, being the clarity and accuracy of a singer’s pitch. This goes back to a singer’s range, and how precisely they can sing the different frequencies, or notes, that extend along that range. This also relates to tone, as defined in linguistics, as pitch differentiation is very important without instrumentation to provide a consistent pitch. This relates to auditory phonetics, as a good “ear” is an important quality for any musician, not just a singer.
Finally acoustic phonetics involve a finished product and putting it all together. On the less technical side, acoustics involve how the group sounds. This depends on a lot of things, such as the size of the group, the venue being performed at, whether or not there are electronic amplifiers and mikes, etc. The group has to decide what to sing and how to sing it based off of these options. A choral piece with a lot of dynamics and fine focus on articulation, such as “Ave Maria”, would probably not sound too great in a loud environment like CoHo, or an open area, like White Plaza, but would resonate and sound great somewhere like MemChu. Having a microphone opens a lot of possibilities for singers, but it is a huge difference for VP, where they can take advantage of the amplification to create a wider variety of percussive elements and sounds to complement the group.
On the more linguistics focused part of acoustics, there lies a defining factor of a cappella - harmony. The vocal folds produce a primary pitch, known as the source wave, although this is not the only frequency that is produced or heard from a singer. This wave repeats itself, creating harmonic frequencies that can be enhanced or diminished by the vocal tract. Besides the individual aspect of harmony, the term also extends to something noticed more auditorily. If a group’s parts sing different notes, they can create a harmony of frequencies much more powerful than a singer could produce on his or her own. This is what gives a cappella it’s unique sound, and what keeps it’s community coming back for more.
What other aspects of Linguistics do you think are important to a cappella, or even singing in general? Do you think that these qualities of phonetics are crucial for a singer to have? How much focus on Phonetics, and Linguistics in general, does learning formal singing technique involve?
I am a singer myself, and I also found myself relating a lot of phonetics back to singing. One thing I’ve found is that the pronunciations of words when sung are significantly different than their accepted spoken pronunciations. This is especially evident in the vowels: for example, “love” goes from [lʌv] to closer to [lav] and “say” goes from [seI] to [se]. The vowel substitutions are mainly for acoustic reasons: since [a] and [e] are front and fairly open vowels, they are able to project more and have a fuller, more desirable tone when sung. In the case of the diphthong in the word “say,” while e and I are both front vowels, I is more closed and cuts off the sound and is thus omitted when sung. Ending consonants are often omitted or nearly omitted for a similar reason, and stops within words are glossed over as quickly as possible for optimal continuity of sound. In terms of acapella or choral singing, these changes are vital. Projection, sound quality, and homogeneity of sound are what determine the quality of a singing group, and using the power of phonetics to optimize these qualities is key.
ReplyDeleteI found this post to be particularly interesting, as throughout the process of learning phonetics and articulation I had been curious as to how it would apply to singing, and what phonetically makes for a pleasant song. While I have no experience with singing, I do listen to a large amount of music, and have wondered how phonetics can be applied to the study of musical sounds in general. It seems to me that many common instruments produce similar sounds to the ones that we have learned about during our study of speech sounds. Mimicking the sound of a hi-hat's 'tsk' calls for a dental fricative sound, while a kick drum's 'boom' requires a bilabial stop. Given that we can identify within language which sounds appear pleasant in conjunction and sequence, is it possible to extract this and apply it to the sounds we hear in music? Or is this already commonly done, and the layman like myself just doesn't know about it?
ReplyDeleteAs someone who has received vocal training at one point in the past, I think the notions of vowel matching and diction to which you point are two of most important ways that linguistics and singing technique combine. The notion of vowel matching is a complicated one, especially when groups of singers have different ways of speaking English. In my experience, this usually results in a “singing dialect” that each group develops. Acoustically, the sound will be more powerful if the characteristics of the sound waves produced by each individual are congruent. Additionally, vowels and consonants that are sung must be emphasized in order to be understood. This concept, known as diction, is crucial, and frequently involves over-emphasizing fricatives. I am curious if any research has been done on the production and the perception of sung language.
ReplyDeleteWhat has always astounded me about the link between spoken and sung language is the intonation and vowel placement. For example, how is it that a singer with a spoken British accent seems to replicate an instantly American speech when singing? Furthermore, I am interested in the link between certain tonal languages and pitch. For example, Mandarin Chinese relies on pitch to convey meaning for certain words. Thus, Mandarin speakers are statistically more likely to develop perfect pitch because a majority of the language occurs within a tonal sequence. Thus, linguistics and vocal music feed off each other to create an incredible spectrum of communication.
ReplyDeleteI've been a fan of a cappella for years. The melodic, near perfect pitch of voices in unique harmony can be an incomparable audio experience. I'll never forget the day, however, when I heard a couple of Fleet Street guys practicing. Harmonizing together, the guys could have been signed to a major record label. But when one of them sang his part solo, I was taken aback by the mediocrity of his vocal performance. I've since wondered about this experience. Why is it that voices blended can make for great harmony while the majority of voices singing solo can be challenging the eardrums. You've finally explained it for me with linguistics. When different singers are matching their vowels the sound waves do not overlap perfectly. These slight sound wave discrepancies smooth out the rough spots of other non perfect singing voices. It's a form of Auto-Tune, but without the studio technology. This is also why we all sound so great in the shower. The sound waves bouncing of the shower walls smooth out the rough areas of the waves coming from our vocal tracts creating a more harmonious experience. Manner of articulation, matching vowels and good old fashioned sound wave theory; when it comes to a cappella, these things explain alot!
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