Johnson, Randolph B and Huron, David and Collister, Lauren
(2013)
Music and Lyrics Interactions and their Influence on Recognition of Sung Words: An Investigation of Word Frequency, Rhyme, Metric Stress, Vocal Timbre, Melisma, and Repetition Priming.
Empirical Musicology Review, 9 (1).
2 - 20.
Abstract
<jats:p>This study investigated several factors presumed to influence the intelligibility of song lyrics. Twenty-seven participants listened to recordings of musical passages sung in English; each passage consisted of a brief musical phrase sung by a solo voice. Six vocalists produced the corpus of sung phrases. Eight hypotheses derived from common phonological and prosodic principles were tested. Intelligibility of lyrics was degraded: (i) when archaic language was used; (ii) when words were set in melismatic rather than syllabic contexts; (iii) when the musical rhythm did not match the prosodic speech rhythm; and (iv) when successive target words rhymed. Intelligibility of lyrics was facilitated: (i) when words contained diphthongs rather than monophthongs; (ii) when a word from an immediately previous passage reappeared; (iii) when a syllabic setting of a word was preceded by a melismatic setting of the same word. No difference in word intelligibility was observed between music theater singers and opera singers.</jats:p>
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| Item Type: |
Article
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| Status: |
Published |
| Creators/Authors: |
|
| Date: |
24 October 2013 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Access Restriction: |
No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately. |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
Empirical Musicology Review |
| Volume: |
9 |
| Number: |
1 |
| Publisher: |
The Ohio State University Libraries |
| Page Range: |
2 - 20 |
| DOI or Unique Handle: |
10.18061/emr.v9i1.3729 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > Linguistics |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Date Deposited: |
22 May 2014 20:51 |
| Last Modified: |
05 Sep 2024 15:55 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/21655 |
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