Synthesis, or Why Covers of Elliott Smith Songs Don’t Work

As a means of synthesis, this chapter applies elements from the conceptual model (engaging elements of pitch, prosody, quality, and technological mediation) in analyses of three recordings by Elliott Smith—“Between the Bars” (1997), “Twilight” (2004), and “Roman Candle” (1994)—and their respective cover versions by Seth Avett and Jessica Lea Mayfield (2015). For some songs recorded by artists whose voices connote a particular brand of longing or desperation, the same quality of emotion becomes impossible to convey through other singing voices, suggesting that the quality of emotion is inextricably linked to the alterity of the singing voice. Furthermore, the connection between quality of singing voices and quality of emotion informs listeners’ constructions of authenticity in popular music.

The Area in Between

This chapter explores the ways in which recorded voices interact with external technologies and proposes a continuum of extremes of “wetness” and “dryness” based on the degree to which listeners perceive processing of a vocal signal. The chapter offers an overview of the most commonly used signal processes in popular music production, including vocal layering, overdubbing, pitch modification, recording transmission, compression, reverb, spatial placement, delay, and other electronic effects, which interact with elements from the domains of pitch, prosody, and quality. Analyses of vocally driven music recorded by Björk and cover versions of her songs by other artists demonstrate the wide range of possibilities associated with technological mediation.

Quality

Similar to what several researchers in the early 1980s dubbed “sonance,” quality comprises more than just timbre, including also intensity, harmonic spectrum, phonation, and changes in sound. Multiple dimensions—including timbre, phonation, onset, resonance, clarity, paralinguistic effects, and loudness—create a singer’s individual vocal quality. Songs recorded and re-recorded by Lucas Silveira demonstrate the dynamic aspects associated with an ever-evolving vocal quality due to the artist’s having undergone hormone replacement therapy. The concept of quality is framed in terms of three different orientations—the physiological, acoustic, and perceptual—all of which are essential to understanding qualitative aspects of vocal delivery, more so than aspects in the domains of pitch and prosody. While sonic markers of identities are fluid social constructions rather than static essential attributes, this chapter considers how qualitative elements may signify artists’ identities and genre.

Prosody

Prosody, the pacing and flow of delivery, comprises five constituent components—phrasing, metric placement, motility, embellishment, and consonantal articulation. The synthesis of these components works on at least three different levels of specificity: at the broadest level, distinctive prosodic profiles may align with larger genre or style categories; at a middle level, prosodic profiles may distinguish an artist’s general prosodic style of delivery; and at a local level, prosodic profiles may be associated with an artist’s singing style specific to a single recording or passage within a song. The chapter examines each prosodic component in analyses of four versions of Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me a River”: Timberlake’s original studio recording (2002), Glen Hansard’s acoustic folk-rock cover (2003), Ten Masked Men’s death metal cover (2003), and the Cliks’ indie rock cover (2006). The chapter also considers the ranging dimensionality among prosodic elements.

Introduction

Arguing for the importance of vocal delivery in music analysis to better understand signification in popular music recordings, this chapter presents a conceptual model for analysis, places vocal elements along a continuum of dimensionality, and argues for the use of transcription and spectrographic analysis. It provides an overview of various disciplinary understandings of voice, ranging from the sonic materiality of sound, literal phonological and linguistic approaches, to more abstract philosophical and literary approaches. Finally, complexities to understanding the signification of voice, while vexing, also compel a systematic investigation of the ways in which we understand voices, and the elements that contribute to the richness of vocal signification.

Pitch

The domain of pitch refers to listeners’ perceptions of frequency. Pitch’s most transparent and absolute aspects—range, tessitura, and intonation—interrelate with registration, a nuanced multidimensional aspect engaging both pitch and quality. Leonard Cohen’s iconic “Hallelujah” (1984) and cover versions by Jeff Buckley (1994), Rufus Wainwright (2001), k. d. lang (2004), Imogen Heap (2006), Alexandra Burke (2008) and Kate McKinnon (2016) serve as exemplars for investigating aspects of pitch. Drawing upon disparate fields ranging from vocal science to feminist linguistics, this chapter also examines how aspects of pitch and registration relate to broader issues of identity formation, particularly as they serve as signifiers of gender and age.