Ave Verum Pentium

This chapter considers the role of technology in recording, processing, and archiving the singing voice. It challenges the predominant theory that the recording chain is deterministic and free of context and suggests that those who use technology in the recording process often have different needs in technological solutions to problems as well as the scientific understanding required for effective practice. This chapter defines sound, how it is captured and the tools used, the differences between analog and digital methods of recording, as well as frequencies, compression, and file size. It attempts to offer readers from different backgrounds a somewhat broader understanding about the recorded voice and reveal and challenge proximate worlds and practices. It emphasizes that outside the highly specialized worlds of research and scholarship in electronics, engineering, and physics, successful recordings are possible when using a systematic approach.

Singing and Vocal Development

This chapter examines the link between singing and vocal development to challenge the cultural stereotype that some people “can sing” and some “cannot.” It suggests that singing in the general population is more accurate and widespread than currently believed. It explores the nature of singing as a developmental behavior from pre-birth and infancy through puberty and adolescence. It considers how normal singing development may be fostered, shaped, and sometimes hindered. It identifies factors that can affect a child’s singing behaviors, contextual influences, and that age generally is not a reliable predictor for establishing voice change stages. It suggests that singing in one form or another is an essential feature of an individual’s musical development and behavior, and that in each age phase the human voice has a distinctive underlying anatomy and physiology producing different “singing” behaviors. Finally, it suggests how all of us can realize our singing potential.

Practical Voice Analyses and their Application in the Studio

Modern personal computers are fast enough to analyze singing and provide real-time visual feedback of relevant acoustic elements. This feedback provides a quantitative dimension to the learning process in support of developing appropriate sung outputs. However, no computer-based system can replace the singing teacher, as the qualitative listening of an experienced musician cannot be replicated by a computer algorithm. The application of real-time visual displays can facilitate greater efficiency in learning fundamental skills through direct feedback in lessons and during private practice, leaving the teacher more time to work on qualitative aspects of performance that a computer cannot contribute to, such as stagecraft, interpretation, understanding the words, collaborating with an accompanist, and when to use different voice qualities. This chapter describes typical displays that are used in real-time visual feedback systems for singing training and considers how spectrography in particular can be used in pedagogical practice in the voice studio.

The Effects and Benefits of Singing Individually and in a Group

This chapter is devoted to the biology of singing. Immediate effects have been extensively scientifically studied. Breathing and its synchronization with heart rate variability has been an important theme. Endocrine (endorphins, oxytocin, cortisol, testosterone) and immunological (TNF alpha, fibrinogen, immunoglobulines) reactions have also been studied during singing. In collective singing, cohesiveness is a major factor. Singing in a group during a choir rehearsal has stronger stimulation effects on oxytocin secretion than chatting in the same group. High levels of oxtytocin coincide with strong feelings of cohesiveness. In addition, oxytocin dampens anxiety and pain. Long-term effects of singing training and regular practice have been less extensively studied but there is evidence that singing training may influence such things as the brain´s development, the ability to synchronize heart and lung function, and the level of regenerative activity in the body.

Singing as Inter- and Intra-personal Communication

Human vocalization contains key essences of our musical development and fosters our earliest abilities to communicate musically. Speech melodies are the first linguistic elements experienced and mastered, and are indistinguishable from the melodic precursors of singing as essential elements in intra- and inter-personal musical communication. Singing as communication originates in vocal pitch contours whose musical intervals are exploited by caregivers in infant-directed speech to foster language development. Similar, but more explicit, features are evidenced in caregivers’ infant-directed singing, such as in lullabies and play songs. These basic musical elements of communication can be perceived in utero and underpin the infant’s subsequent vocalizations and musical behaviors. Additionally, the underlying integration of emotion with perception and cognition generates a network of linked vocal and emotional behaviors that are central to human communication. The chapter will examine the growing evidence for musical communication as integral to human vocalization and emotional expression.

Perceived Quality of a Singing Performance

The chapter summarizes the author’s work developing a theoretical framework in relation to perceived quality in a singing performance. This work focused on singing performances rather than singing performance related effects, such as visual feedback, audience dynamics, live listening logistics, and other factors that might be part of a general “experience” but not necessarily part of the voiced/sung product. In addition to discussing CReMA, a technological solution the author devised for increasing the specificity of response measurement to musical performances, two examples are offered of unpublished empirical research as vignettes of the context-sensitive and context-specific nature of the singing voice in performance. The outcomes support that although assessments of singing and the perception of quality or beauty in a singing performance are not something that can be made using a deterministic rule-system, there is value in systematically acquiring more evidence specific—and also sensitive—to various singing contexts.

Singing and Invented Song-making in Infants’ and Young Children’s Early Learning and Development

This chapter draws on a range of disciplines including music developmental psychology, cultural psychology, ethnomusicology, archeology, aesthetics, and evolutionary theory to illustrate the ubiquitous nature of singing and song-making in human thought and activity. Invented song-making, a phenomenon that emerges in infancy between infant and carer, functions as a cultural tool in children’s engagement in social and cultural settings, plays a role in children’s early learning and development across many dimensions, and lays the foundations for musical parenting. This shared music-making underpins the emergence of children’s independent song-making. The chapter pursues these notions through five questions: What is young children’s invented song-making? When and how does singing and invented song-making emerge? What prompts and supports early singing and invented song-making? What function does early singing and invented song-making have in young children’s early learning and development? How might young children’s early singing and invented song-making be supported and developed?

Fetal, Neonatal, and Early Infant Experiences of Maternal Singing

Singing has its beginnings before birth in the fetal experience of the maternal singing voice. The nature of this form of human musical communication is highlighted against speculation that music may have evolved through mother–infant interactions. This chapter presents an overview of selected research on fetal, neonatal, and infant auditory response to and experience of maternal singing. This includes characteristics of maternal infant-directed singing and the maternal–infant bonding inherent in maternal singing. The discussion in this chapter rests on theories of early artistic intelligence and learning that go beyond goals of survival, problem solving, object use, or language acquisition, to include “the biological phenomenon of love”. The suggestion is that communicative expressions between mother and infant involve sympathetic responses that occur through delicate expressions and sensitive awareness that supersede perceptive and discriminatory processes.

Historical Approaches in Revealing the Singing Voice, Part 2

This chapter describes the development of research on singing in the second half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the current century, with an emphasis on the unique work of the author and colleagues in Groningen, the Netherlands. Research in professional singing has been primarily oriented towards aerodynamic, e.g., flow-related topics, driven by the Bernoulli concept and also the increasing availability of measuring equipment. Simultaneous measurements of flow and subglottic pressure in normal individuals and patients are described, after which the value of these measurements is discussed. Advances in computing have facilitated studying in real time the aligning of formants with harmonics of the voice source over the whole singing range. Because of these new possibilities, studying and comparing singing voice registration events became much easier, and could be integrated into the singing studio. The transition from air-flow concepts to resonance effects is emphasized.

Voice Management and the Older Singer

This chapter explores the vocal ecology of older singers, focusing on three categories of singers: the professional and/or successful soloist who is approaching the end of a singing career; the amateur chorister; and the community singing group participant. It provides an overview of the physical impacts of vocal aging, and addresses also how personality traits can affect a person’s attitude toward aging and his or her ability to manage the effects of vocal aging. Being—or becoming—a singer in this phase of life offers a range of cognitive insights and challenges to the singer and the singing teacher. Through case studies of five singers, and data from a community choir averaging 85 years old, the chapter examines teaching strategies that can be used to ensure that singers can be supported and encouraged to continue to receive the psycho-social and physical benefits of singing, no matter what their age.