Acoustic Analysis of Voice in Habitual Phonation and Adhara Shruthi in Carnatic Classical Singers
ACOUSTIC ANALYSIS OF VOICE IN HABITUAL PHONATION AND ADHARA SHRUTHI IN CARNATIC CLASSICAL SINGERS The term singing has been defined simply as producing musical tones by means of the voice (Vennard, 1962). Although definition appears to be fairly simple, the act of singing is much more involved and requires a variety of phonatory, articulatory and resonatory adjustments. Singing differs from speaking, quantitatively and qualitatively on some parameters like rhythm and melodic qualities (Luchsinger, 1965). In singing, vowels are modified by changing source and filter to produce a wider dynamic range. This enables to maintain a balance in loudness across phonemes and produce vocal timbers (Titze, 1989). It also allows shifts in formant frequencies and subtle adjustments in the timbre and vowel quality. This shift in formant frequencies/ articulatory adjustments leads to appearance of Singer’s formant (Fs). Singers formant is an exceptionally high spectrum envelope peak around 3 KHz in the vowel spectra of singers (Sundberg et al, 1995). This produces exciting ringing quality and gives an arresting “edge” to the voice.
Indian classical singing is mainly classified as of two types namely, Carnatic and Hindustani style. In general, they have the same basis, being melodic and governed by rules of ‘raga’ and ‘taala’ structure. Carnatic style is art form of south India. The carnatic school claims to have maintained and developed and orthodox traditional while the Hindustani school is said to have experienced considerable changes and developments through the Moghul period up to the present time (Sambamurthi, 1982). In Indian classical music, each raga is composed of a different set of tones. Some have more notes in the lower and middle octaves while some have more in the higher octaves. While singing vocalist needs to be careful in selecting his ‘adharashruthi’ as the shruthi selected should enable them to comfortably cover all the notes in the raga as well as
Indian classical singing is mainly classified as of two types namely, Carnatic and Hindustani style. In general, they have the same basis, being melodic and governed by rules of ‘raga’ and ‘taala’ structure. Carnatic style is art form of south India. The carnatic school claims to have maintained and developed and orthodox traditional while the Hindustani school is said to have experienced considerable changes and developments through the Moghul period up to the present time (Sambamurthi, 1982). In Indian classical music, each raga is composed of a different set of tones. Some have more notes in the lower and middle octaves while some have more in the higher octaves. While singing vocalist needs to be careful in selecting his ‘adharashruthi’ as the shruthi selected should enable them to comfortably cover all the notes in the raga as well as