resonance – Philip Lauriat

Some singers seem to fill the theater effortlessly, while others blast to be heard. What is it that gives a good opera singer the carrying power to soar over an orchestra, even at piano?

There is an aura around these voices, an extra bit of zing, that flies to the farthest reaches of the theater. This goes by various names: resonance, 2800, squillo, singer’s formant, mask, etc.

Another way to ask this question is, Why do some singers get hired by larger companies, while others don’t? A while ago, I went to a performance in NYC of singers chosen from a particular ex-conductor’s masterclasses, and marketed as the singers of tomorrow, or some such. I sat next to a baritone who has sung major roles at the Met, and he asked, “Where’s the resonance?” Most of these singers, in addition to singing repertoire they never should have sung, did not have this zing, and so the companies and managers there left quickly. They all had big voices up close, but not the thing that will actually carry to four thousand seats.

What is this thing? The names “2800” and “singer’s formant” are the most accurate names for this. When sung with this, there is an extra bump in the overtone series of any given note, in the vicinity of 2800 cycles per second. (remember, middle A is 440 cps, so this is near the F 3 ½ octaves above middle C, or an octave above the Queen of the Night’s top.)

If you chart the combined overtone series of the orchestra, you will see that the higher the overtone, the softer it sounds, in general. Charting a good operatic voice, you’d see that the volume of the sound mostly diminishes as you go up through the overtones, except for a major bump around 2800 cps. There is a good chart of this accompanying an article in Scientific American from March, 1977 called “The acoustics of the singing voice” (Sundberg). The link to a copy of the article is here. I highly recommend you read the entire article, but take a look at this chart:

This chart is not particularly well reproduced, and old technology, but you can see there are three curves, all normalized for a fundamental of 440 hertz, our tuning A. One is the averaged distribution of sound in an orchestra, the second is the same for normal speech, and the third is Jussi Bjorling. He’s the one with the bump, the other two are nearly the same.

From what I understand, if the ear hears the overtones, or partials, and cannot hear the fundamental, the ear will recreate the fundamental from those partials. So, even if Bjorling’s note was buried by the orchestra, the ear will get the overtones (especially around 2800 since it has such a bump) and recreate that note.

So, how do we do that? That’s a subject for next time.

As I’ve often said, the vowels carry the beauty and meaning of every language, and if they are generalized all that is lost. Singing is communication! If your concept of vocal production does not make that clear, you might as well play the kazoo.

What do I want to hear in a voice? I want the vowels to all be clearly defined, so that even if I don’t understand the language I could write down what is being sung. I also want a consistent quality and quantity of sound and resonance, whatever the vowel and whatever the range. That shouldn’t be too hard, should it?

Well, maybe, but how to do that? Let’s take the vowels apart a bit, and see how we can accomplish all this.

When you just open your mouth, an ‘ah’ falls out. Actually, more like ‘uh’ but it take the slightest attention to turn that into ‘ah’. So, instead of the root of all evil, ‘ah’ can be considered the root of all vowels.

I don’t mean that you need to perfect the ‘ah’ before going on, or that ‘ah’ will be your first and best vowel. I’m just thinking of this in terms of vowel formation, in the physiological sense.

From there we have three types of vowels: tongue vowels, lip vowels and those interesting French and English vowels that need both tongue and lips.

“oo” is the most forward of all the vowels, “ee” is the farthest back. Let me show you.

Lip vowels first:

You can turn an ‘ah’ into an ‘oo’ with your hand. Try this: sing a good ah, then while you hold it, cover nearly all of your mouth with your hand and it becomes ‘oo’.

That might not work in performance. For most singing, you’ll need to purse your lips like blowing out a candle. Loose lips in a tiny circle, slightly protruding, with the inside of the mouth open and the tongue forward and relaxed. If the lips aren’t forming the ‘oo’ then the back of the tongue is closing your throat for it. That’s why you can often hear singers who have a big ‘ah’ disappear when they get to ‘oo’ – the tongue closes off the resonance.

If you have a hard time convincing the tongue to stay out of it, try this mind game: Sing a long ‘ah’. Just ‘ah’ the whole ‘ah’ and nothing but the ‘ah’. While you’re singing it, more your lips into and out of the position I described in the above paragraph, and you should get a good ‘oo’. It may sound different from your customary ‘oo’ if you’re used to the back of the tongue getting involved. I’m working on an ‘oo’ for the paying customers in the nosebleed seats!

‘Oh’ is half way to ‘oo’ and the other lip vowels (‘aw’ etc.) are just varying degrees of this formation. To get the hang of it, which shouldn’t take long, practice singing these vowels on a single note, easy mid-range at first, then moving higher and lower. Work to get them consistent clear, and loose, starting on an easy note and then throughout the range.

No tongue! That’s for next time.

Tag: resonance

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