Formants as Melody
Distinguishing voice phonetics from speech phonetics is not new . What is new is the way in which the vowel timbre is heard and viewed as a “melody in the timbre”. When you start to hear individual overtones in vowels, vowels are heard as pairs of notes and not just as a timbre.
Experiments with amateur and professional choirs show that the sound information contained in the vowels influences the intonation even if it is not consciously perceived. The sound information is derived from the first and second formants, with the second formant having a much stronger effect.
Overtones are normally not heard for two reasons: 1) The perception of vowels is flexible with regard to formants. We hear the same vowel, even if the formants differ a fifth or more from the average. 2) The singers are not trained in the perception of overtones and therefore only listen to timbres.
Chorus singers first have to learn to consciously hear overtones in order to be able to sing their formants accurately. Afterwards they learn techniques to tune the second formant.
When choir singers synchronize their formants within a voice group, they create homogeneity. Since several positions of the formants are possible for each vowel, the conductor can emphasize those partials that fit into the musical context and at the same time stabilize other voices. The results are:
- Homogeneity is created by uniform formants.
- Just intonation is based on overtones in vowels.
- Hearing and motor skills of the singers are refined.
- The timbre becomes composable.
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