The use of playback experiments to study humpback whale song was assessed. Singers clearly detected playback song while singing and with other singers in the distance. Singers approached or joined song similar to their own from as far as 800 m but did not do so for a different (foreign) song. In one compound trial, on the playback of different song, the singer moved away and continued singing; ...

OBJECTIVE Using subjective measures, this study investigated singers' and listeners' perceptions of changes in voice condition after vocal cool-down exercises. STUDY DESIGN A single-subject crossover was designed to evaluate whether there were discernible differences in either singer or listener perceptions from pre (no vocal cool downs) to post (with cool downs) test. Subjective questionnair...

With the increase in processing power of computers, proliferation of specialized software and hardware, and the availability of greater communications bandwidth, it is possible to deploy more demanding modern Distributed Interactive Multimedia Applications such as World Opera. The World Opera application realizes the vision of a distributed real-time opera performance in which artists who are d...

Compared with the study on acoustic quality of western music and opera, few studies were carried out on how the contemporary people evaluate acoustic attributes of Chinese traditional opera. In this study the subjective preference values of acoustic parameters for Peking opera such as sound pressure level, reverberation time and frequency response curve of RT were revealed through laboratory ex...

OBJECTIVE We aimed to report on the vocal technique in a group of Middle Eastern singers. SUBJECTS AND METHOD A total of 78 Middle Eastern singers were assessed. Demographic data included age, gender, training status and number of years of singing. All singers had laryngeal videoendostroboscopy. Description and grading of posture, tension, type of breathing, type of phonation, resonance and t...

Proper singing requires the integration of auditory feedback mechanisms with the vocal motor system, such that vocal pitch can be precisely controlled. To determine the neural substrates involved in audio-vocal integration, non-musicians and experienced singers underwent fMRI scanning while they sang a single tone with either unaltered ("simple") or pitch-shifted auditory feedback; in pitch-shi...

Singing is a ubiquitous and culturally significant activity that humans engage in from an early age. Nevertheless, some individuals - termed poor-pitch singers - are unable to match target pitches within a musical semitone while singing. In the experiments reported here, we tested whether poor-pitch singing deficits would be reduced when individuals imitate recordings of themselves as opposed t...

It has been proposed that singing evolved to facilitate social cohesion. However, it remains unclear whether bonding arises out of properties intrinsic to singing or whether any social engagement can have a similar effect. Furthermore, previous research has used one-off singing sessions without exploring the emergence of social bonding over time. In this semi-naturalistic study, we followed new...

The authors focus on spectators’ judgements on the performance quality in opera. The results of a field study conducted in Dessau Opera House revealed the single components (e.g. orchestra) and the congruency components (e.g. congruency between the music and the staging dimension) which contribute to operagoers’ overall quality judgements. Spectators’ individual judgements were found to be high...