Comparison of Singer Techniques in Unaccompanied and Choral Singing

Česká verzia

Authors: M. Lejska ¹; R. Havlík ¹; M. Frič ² ; A. Priechodská-Široká ³
Authors place of work: AUDIO-Fon centr., Brno ¹; Výzkumné centrum hudební akustiky (MARC) AMU, Praha ²; Národní divadlo Brno ³
Published in the journal: Otorinolaryngol Foniatr, 61, 2012, No. 1, pp. 44-52.
Category: Original Article

Summary

In the area of artistic singing the unaccompanied singers - soloists are artistically and socially preferred to other singers. There are, however, highly artistically and professionally performing choirs, where the members – singers – are burdened with at least the same vocal load as soloists.

It cannot be doubted that the area of the highest singer skills includes both soloists and choral singers. Nevertheless, their artistic expression differs significantly, although both groups use signing for the display. If the singer manifestation differs, which is common then the singer technique and consequently the load and related voice disorders differ as well and bring the singers of both groups into phoniatric outpatient departments. This view is important for finding, recognition, and evaluation of differences between the soloist and choral singing.

The contribution compares the recordings of the same singer singing identical part by the soloist and choral technique, respectively. The processing used the methods of musical acoustics. The results confirmed the presumption that the soloist singing differs from the choral one. The highest differences were found in the intensity of the singer’s effort and its frequency structure. In the examples of soloist singing the areas of higher harmonic tones are more illuminated which make the voice more inspiring with more expressed individuality.

If the signs of affected voice become obvious, the higher phoniatric care should be provided to soloist as well as choral singers.

Key words:
soloist singer technique, choral singer technique, musical acoustics, phoniatric care.

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