Materials about voice

Philip Tagg, 2016-03-22

• PowerPoint Dénoter la voix: approches pragmatique et didactique | Denoting Voice: a pragmatic and didactic approach
  in French and English; prepared for conference La voix dans les chansons : approches musicologiques, Lyon & Paris, 3-4 March 2016.
• Video The Paris Voice Montage   [7:33] — 79 numbered vocal extracts (≈ 13" extract) from dozens of different styles/cultures and including scores of different vocal personas. Used at conference La voix dans les chansons : approches musicologiques, Paris 2016-03-04, to highlight central issues about the perception and description of voice in music. Best if seen/heard in conjunction with the following:
  • PowerPoint presentation Dénoter la voix (in French & English);
  • Excel file of source information and comments relevant to the montage (see below).
• Text ‘Vocal persona’: Chapter 10 in Music's Meanings (pp. 343-382) — includes sections Persona; Poïetic, acoustic and aesthesic descriptors; Vocal costumes; Grasping vocal persona.
• Video Vocal Persona Commutations [2:22] — examples of coherence and incoherence between vocal, gestural, social and emotional
  aspects of personality.
• Excel file accompanying video ‘The Paris Voice Montage’ (see above). This Excel file contains 12 fields of data (columns A-L) for the 79 vocal extracts in the montage. The file can be downloaded and indexed on each of the following columns:
  • A. Name[s] of vocalist[s] heard in each extract
  • B. Name of each extract
  • C. Gender of vocalist[s] — M=male, F= female
  • D. Key of each extract, e.g. G1=G flat, G2=G natural, G3=G sharp
  • E. Order of each extract’s occurrence in the video
  • F. Time at which each extract occurs in the video
  • G. Language of extract with n° of occurrences — ARabic 1, BG=Bulgarian 1, CN=Chinese 1, DEutsch 4, EE=Estonian 1, ENglish 50, FRench 3, GReek 1, INdian (Hindi, etc.) 2, ITalian 1, IU=Inuit 1, MOngolian 1, PG=Portuguese 2, RUssian 1, SPanish 3, SVenska 1, TK=Turkish 1, VN=Vietnamese 1, X... unidentified 4.
  • H. Year of release of full version from which each extract is taken (????=year unknown)
  • I. URL of complete version from which each extract is taken. To save space, the following abbreviations are used:
    • ‘YT=’ replaces ‘https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=’, e.g. ‘YT=PX8Hn-Lo9mY’ means ‘https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX8Hn-Lo9mY’
    • ‘VM=' replaces ‘https://vimeo.com/’, e.g. 'VM=157933668’ means ‘https://vimeo.com/157933668’
    • ‘PT=’ replaces ‘http://tagg.org/audio/’, e.g. ‘PT=BaBenzele-Lullaby1.mp3’ means ‘http://tagg.org/audio/BaBenzele-Lullaby1.mp3’
  • J. Vocalist's name (column A repeated for convenience when viewing columns K and L)
  • K. Initial, informal categorisation of each extract for discussion purposes (not expounded)
  • L. Informal, provisional and personal comments on each extract
• Meta-info about the montage and the Excel file:
  • The montage originally contained 115 examples; reduced to 79 extracts to fit into conference time slot.
  • Extracts were mainly taken from recordings in my collection or on my hard drive that struck me personally as vocally interesting or representative of a particular singing tradition.
  • 32 of the 79 extracts are marked 'F' (=female vocalist), 44 'M' (male); 3 are mixed (F+M)
  • C and C# are more common keys for female vocalists; E, F and G more common for males.