Relationships Among Personality, Daily Speaking Voice Use, and Phonotrauma in Adult Female Singers

Purpose This study sought to determine whether personality traits related to extraversion and impulsivity are more strongly associated with singers with nodules compared to vocally healthy singers and to understand the relationship between personality and the types of daily speaking voice use. Method Weeklong ambulatory voice recordings and personality inventories were obtained for 47 female singers with nodules and 47 vocally healthy female singers. Paired t tests investigated trait differences between groups. Relationships between traits and weeklong speaking voice measures (vocal dose, sound pressure level [SPL], neck surface acceleration magnitude [NSAM], fundamental frequency, cepstral peak prominence [CPP], and the ratio of the first two harmonic magnitudes [ H 1 –H 2 ]) were examined using pairwise Pearson r coefficients. Multiple regressions were performed to estimate voice parameters that correlated with two or more traits. Results Singers with nodules scored higher on the Social Potency scale (reflecting a tendency toward social dominance) and lower on the Control scale (reflecting impulsivity) compared to the vocally healthy singers. In vocally healthy singers, vocal dose measures were positively correlated with a combination of Wellbeing (i.e., happiness) and Social Potency, mean SPL was positively correlated with Wellbeing, SPL variability was positively correlated with Social Potency and negatively with Harm Avoidance, and CPP mean was positively correlated with Wellbeing. Singers with nodules had a negative correlation between NSAM skewness and Social Potency. Both groups had negative correlations between H 1 –H 2 mean and Social Potency and Social Closeness. Conclusions Singers with nodules are more socially dominant and impulsive than vocally healthy singers. Personality traits are related to daily speaking voice use, particularly in vocally healthy singers. Individuals with higher levels of traits related to happiness and social dominance and lower Harm Avoidance tended to speak more, with higher laryngeal forces, with more SPL variability, and with more pressed glottal closure, which could increase risk of phonotrauma.

The Voice of Geber (Lam 3) in the Panorama of Speaking Voices in the Book of Lamentations

The present study, acknowledging the centrality of Lam 3 in the book of Lamentations, examines the development of the speaking voice of the geber in this chapter and compares it with other voices speaking in the book. The questioned identity of the geber becomes a model for other ‘voices’: the narrator and the Daughter of Zion. The destruction of the city, carried out by God himself, indicates an exhaustion of the old institutions and the need for a new identity of both the Daughter of Zion and the supporters of the community of the city (i.e., the narrator) in the days of crisis.

Resistance to Song: A Modernist View of Early Modern Lyric

In Theory of the Lyric Jonathan Culler makes powerful arguments for analogies between lyric and song, especially with regard to each medium’s commitment to producing pleasure and separating the speaking voice from individual psychology. But his case runs the risk of avoiding or oversimplifying lyric poems that resist these analogies. These poems call for interpretive acts that fully engage the work of syntax and structure in establishing distinctive modes of experience. Here Shakespeare’s sonnets demonstrate the roles syntax and structure can play, especially in cultivating complex acts of self-consciousness for which Hegel provides our best critical lens. With this focus, some important roles played by metaphysical conceits also become clear. The conceit forces acts of intense reflection. In the poetry, quintessentially in Donne’s “The Extasie,” there emerges a drama of the agents carrying out distinctive acts of self-interpretation: the fullness of love depends on hearing themselves speak and trying to imagine the objective difference that hearing is making in their behavior toward the other lover.

Differences Between Female Singers With Phonotrauma and Vocally Healthy Matched Controls in Singing and Speaking Voice Use During 1 Week of Ambulatory Monitoring

Purpose Previous ambulatory voice monitoring studies have included many singers and have combined speech and singing in the analyses. This study applied a singing classifier to the ambulatory recordings of singers with phonotrauma and healthy controls to determine if analyzing speech and singing separately would reveal voice use differences that could provide new insights into the etiology and pathophysiology of phonotrauma in this at-risk population. Method Forty-two female singers with phonotrauma (vocal fold nodules or polyps) and 42 healthy matched controls were monitored using an ambulatory voice monitor. Weeklong statistics (average, standard deviation, skewness, kurtosis) for sound pressure level (SPL), fundamental frequency, cepstral peak prominence, the magnitude ratio of the first two harmonics ( H 1 –H 2 ), and three vocal dose measures were computed from the neck surface acceleration signal and separated into singing and speech using a singing classifier. Results Mixed analysis of variance models found expected differences between singing and speech in each voice parameter, except SPL kurtosis. SPL skewness, SPL kurtosis, and all H 1 –H 2 distributional parameters differentiated patients and controls when singing and speech were combined. Interaction effects were found in H 1 –H 2 kurtosis and all vocal dose measures. Patients had significantly higher vocal doses in speech compared to controls. Conclusions Consistent with prior work, the pathophysiology of phonotrauma in singers is characterized by more abrupt/complete glottal closure (decreased mean and variation for H 1 –H 2 ) and increased laryngeal forces (negatively skewed SPL distribution) during phonation. Application of a singing classifier to weeklong data revealed that singers with phonotrauma spent more time speaking on a weekly basis, but not more time singing, compared to controls. Results are used as a basis for hypothesizing about the role of speaking voice in the etiology of phonotraumatic vocal hyperfunction in singers.

Notes on How to Read the Song of Songs

Эта статья содержит ряд соображений о том, как читать Песнь песней. Будучи сборником лирической поэзии, Песнь песней работает в первую очередь со звуком и не имеет сюжета. Важную роль играет принцип разнообразия и контраста. Серьёзный тон сменяется юмористическим, и наоборот. Гендерные стереотипы сохраняют свою силу в одних случаях, но подрываются в других. Сексуальная физиология, вопреки распространенному мнению, не находится на первом плане — гораздо важнее эмоции (факт, противоречащий как «духовным», так и «плотским» прочтениям). Отождествление читателя с лирическим голосом ведёт к субъективным интерпретациям. Последние вполне законны, пока не претендуют на то, чтобы быть единственно верными. Три контекста помогают понять Песнь песней: древний культурный контекст, более узкий контекст Ветхого Завета и контекст лирической традиции от древности до наших дней. This article is an attempt to formulate some principles of reading the Songs of Songs that would take into account its genre and poetic features. Being a collection of lyric poetry, the Song of Songs works primarily with sound and has no plot. An important role in its composition plays the principle of diversity and contrast. A serious tone gives place to a humorous one, and vice versa. Female voices alternate with male ones; gender stereotypes in some cases retain their power, but in others are subverted. Sexual physiology, contrary to a widespread belief, is not in the foreground — much more important are emotions. This fact belies both “spiritual” and “carnal” readings. The Song of Songs involves an identification of the reader with the lyrical speaking voice and provokes subjective interpretations. These are legitimate as long as they do not pretend to be the only true ones. Three contexts help to understand Song of Songs: ancient cultural context, a narrower Old Testament context and the context of the lyrical tradition from antiquity to the present day.

The Role of Choral Singing in Speaking Voice Preservation of Aging Adults

Purpose This descriptive cohort pilot study, using a convenience sample, examined whether evidence from vocal function measures, auditory–perceptual ratings, and/or endoscopic signs of aging supported singing in senior chorales as a possible intervention to preserve the speaking voice in aging adults. Method Thirteen singers and five nonsinging controls, all over 65 years of age, participated. They were assessed at two visits, 15–20 months apart. Vocal function measures and auditory–perceptual ratings of estimated age and the presence of voice disorders were compared across singing status and visit. Changes in the presence and degree of laryngeal signs of aging between visits were compared across singing status. Results Using an alpha of .2, deemed acceptable for pilot studies, vocal function measures supported choral singing as an intervention to preserve the speaking voice as less noise energy between 2 and 3 kHz ( p = .01) and lower phonation threshold pressures (PTPs) were present ( p = .09) for singers compared to nonsinging controls. Greater flows at comfortable pitch ( p = .04) and high pitch ( p = .06) as well as lower cepstral peak prominence smoothed (CPPS) for the vowel /a/ ( p < .01) were found at Visit 2 for both groups, but singers demonstrated lower flows at Visit 2 than nonsinging controls at comfortable pitch ( p = .06). Auditory–perceptual ratings did not support preservation of speaking voice, although a larger percentage of listeners rated nonsinging controls as voice disordered at Visit 2. Endoscopic ratings supported preservation, as singers were more likely than nonsinging controls to be rated as having laryngeal signs of aging absent at both visits ( p = .02). Conclusion The findings from this pilot study provide evidence that regular singing in senior chorales may assist in preserving older adults' speaking voices.