Evolution of Vocal Music: From Ancient Warning Calls to Complex Art Forms

1. Lecture 22 One Last Musical Instrument November 12, 2004

3. When did all of this start? • Our ability to make sounds was probably initially a way of warning others of danger. • It was also a way of calling to other members of the “clan .. pack ..”. • It is not clear what came first … speech or music. • They probably developed together. • The first musical instrument was therefore probably (who really knows??) the almost human voice.

4. Verbal communication is probably the “glue” that allowed civilization to develop. • Again – warnings • Calls to draw members of the group together • Calls to the opposite sex • Music ---> seduction?? • “smooth” sounds • Pleasant voice fluctuations leads to “song” Supposition

5. A Quick History • We don’t know much about the good old days of BC. • In 367 AD, The Council of Laodicia banned all congregational singing so choir singing became necessary. • Music was believed to be pretty “holy” and not to be trusted in the hands of the common folk. • In 600 AD, Pope Gregory set up schools to train choirs. The Gregorian Chant probably evolved from this. • Strong, versatile MALE voices were called for in this kind of singing.

6. More Quick History • 13th Century – Composers were also singers and music became the domain of “high pitched” male singers. • Timbre specifics unknown. • Perhaps nasal? • Chaucer: • “Ful week she soong the service dyvyne, • Entuned in hir nose full semely” • Or who knows???

7. Voice Registers • 15th century • Bass, Tenor, Alto, Descant (very high) • Falsetto singing became popular • Renaissance • Women’s voices became popular because “only certain kinds of women” sang in public! • Sopranos became the rage. • especially on HBO!

8. Next step was the castrato.

9. More Castrato – Positions Available, Somewhat difficult start but great $$$ potential. It Hurts! The popularity of the motion picture "Farinelli" (1994) contributed tremendously to the current surge of interest for works originally written for castrati. Of course, a cruel and inhuman custom of castration has since long gone, the best we can hope for is a vocal approximation performed by sopranists, countertenors, mezzo-sopranos or female contraltos

10. With the passage of time • More and more music for voice has been and is being written with an increasing complexity from generation to generation • Singing somewhat followed the way that musical instruments developed. • OK .. enough history … all of this and more is in the textbook (Johnston).

11. ♩ ♩ ♩ ♩ ♩ ♩ ♩ ♩ ♩ ♩ ♩ ♩ Vocal Range – Fundamental Pitch 1175 Hz 880 Hz 587 Hz 523 Hz 392 Hz 329 Hz 196 Hz 165 Hz 147 Hz 131 Hz 98 Hz 82 Hz Tenor C2 – C5 SopranoG3 – D6 ♂: ♀: Mezzo-SopranoE3 – A5 Baritone G2 – G4 Bass E2 – E4 ContraltoD3 – D5

12. Remember open and closed tube resonances?? BOTH ends open Open End Closed End

13. Open Tubes

15. Standing waves are just like a string! • Ends are PRESSURE NODES • Resonant Frequencies are multiples of the fundamental. • These are the ONLY strong tones that can be played on this tube

16. The Human Open Pipe(s) Open End of Tube Variable Tube Length Flow

18. Open Vocal Chords Do it All! Balloon Thing

19. Spectral analysis of a female voice. Note that the peaks occur at multiples of about 270 Hz (C♯).

20. Vocal Range – Fundamental Pitch ♩ ♩ ♩ ♩ ♩ ♩ ♩ ♩ ♩ ♩ ♩ ♩ How do they do that????? 1175 Hz 880 Hz 587 Hz 523 Hz 392 Hz 329 Hz 196 Hz 165 Hz 147 Hz 131 Hz 98 Hz 82 Hz Tenor C2 – C5 SopranoG3 – D6 ♂: ♀: Mezzo-SopranoE3 – A5 Baritone G2 – G4 Bass E2 – E4 ContraltoD3 – D5

21. Changing Frequency

22. Higher Frequencies - FALSETTO

23. Sound “shape” from vocal chords

24. Fourier • Lived 1768-1830 • Mathematician • Fourier’s Theorem • ANY periodic function can be recreated as the SUM of oscillations at the frequencies represented by the harmonic series … f1, f2……. f425 …. Joseph Fourier

25. Using Fourier’s Idea =

26. An example . consider this shape:

27. Adding it all up ..

28. Nine Terms

29. Your vocal tract • Has many different possible lengths. • You adjust them with your muscles, your tongue, and lots of other things. • Your lungs literally make you a “windbag” for the purpose of making sounds. • The vocal chords produce a periodic pressure wave that enters the vocal tract.

30. One Example The component waves whose frequencies resonate with the length of the “tube” are the ones that come out the loudest.

31. Articulated Speech Suppose this is how we make a particular vowel sound FORMANT

32. Some Formant Combinations

34. Some Specific Formant Frequencies

35. We adjust the tube length using some feedback from the ear.

36. Because we sing WORDS, we need speech articulation

37. While the singing voices look like this.

38. So ……… • The human voice is the ONLY instrument that can entertain itself! • It also is a beautiful sound because it is ours and we grew up with it. • And because it has lots of harmonic content. • We can adjust our fundamental tones to exactly match other voices … the chorus is born!

39. Next … the impact of electricity and magnetism on music and its performance