Research Article
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Year 2021, Volume: 5 Issue: 1, 66 - 82, 30.06.2021
https://doi.org/10.33906/musicologist.875348

Abstract

Project Number

“Computational Analysis of Traditional Georgian Vocal Music (GVM)” (DFG MU 2686/13-1, SCHE 280/20-1)

References

  • Boersma, Paul and Weenink, David. (2021). Praat: doing phonetics by computer [Computer program]. (Version 6.1.48), Retrieved from http://www.praat.org/. (17 June 2021)
  • Bolle Zemp, Sylvie. (1994). Géorgie: Polyphonies de Svanétie (Georgia: Polyphony of Svaneti.) [Liner notes], le Chant du Monde: Diffusion Harmonia Mundi.
  • Bolle Zemp, Sylvie. (1997). "Mehrstimmige Wehrufe? Ein Begräbnisgesang aus Swanetien" (Multi-Voiced Laments? A Funeral Chant From Svaneti). Georgica. 20: 134-148.
  • Bolle Zemp, Sylvie. (2001). Khmovnebi da Ak'ordebi. Simghera Zemo Svanetshi (Vowels and Chords. Singing in Zemo Svaneti). Sasuliero Da Saero Musikis Mravalkhmianobis Problemebi (Problems of Polyphony in Sacred and Secular Music), Ed. Tsurtsumia, Rusudan: pp. 292–303. Tbilisi: Tbilisi State Conservatoire.
  • Bozeman, Kenneth W. (2013). Practical vocal acoustics. Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press.
  • Bozeman, Kenneth W.; O'Connor, Karyn (Writers). (2017, 17.06.2021). Formant Tuning, Vowel Modification, Male and Female Passaggio, and Registration. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxttfvX-FRs
  • Hillenbrand, James; Getty, Laura A.; Wheeler, Kimberlee and Clark, Michael J. (1994). "Acoustic characteristics of American English vowels" The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 95: 2875-2875.
  • Mzhavanadze, Nana; Scherbaum, Frank. (2020). "Svan Funeral Dirges (Zär): Musicological analysis" Musicologist. 4(2): 168-197.
  • Mzhavanadze, Nana; Scherbaum, Frank. (2021). "Svan Funeral Dirges (Zär): Cultural Context", accepted for publication in Musicologist.
  • Reetz, Henning; Jongman, Allgard. (2009). Phonetics. Transcription, Production, Acoustics, and Perception. Massachusetts: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Scherbaum, Frank. (2016). "On the benefit of larynx-microphone field recordings for the documentation and analysis of polyphonic vocal music" Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop Folk Music Analysis [Paper presented at the 6th International Workshop Folk Music Analysis on June 15-17, 2016, Dublin, Ireland.]. Beaguitte, Pierre;
  • Duggan, Bryan; Kelleher, John D. (Eds.), (pp. 80-87). Retrieved from https://arrow.tudublin.ie/fema/8/
  • Scherbaum, Frank; Loos, Wolfgang; Kane, Frank and Vollmer, Daniel. (2015). Body vibrations as source of information for the analysis of polyphonic vocal music. Paper presented at the 5th International Workshop on Folk Music Analysis, June 10-12, 2015, University Pierre and Marie Curie.
  • Scherbaum, Frank; Mzhavanadze, Nana. (2018). "A new archive of multichannel-multimedia field recordings of traditional Georgian singing, praying, and lamenting with special emphasis on Svaneti" LaZAR-Database. Retrieved from https://lazardb.gbv.de/
  • Scherbaum, Frank; Mzhavanadze, Nana. (2020). "Svan Funeral Dirges (Zär): Musical Acoustical Analysis of a New Collection of Field Recordings" Musicologist. 4(2): 138-167.
  • Scherbaum, Frank; Mzhavanadze, Nana; Arom, Simha; Rosenzweig, Sebastian and Müller, Meinard. (2020). "Tonal Organization of the Erkomaishvili Dataset: Pitches, Scales, Melodies and Harmonies" Computational Analysis of Traditional Georgian Vocal Music. 1: 1-64.
  • Scherbaum, Frank; Mzhavanadze, Nana; Rosenzweig, Sebastian and Müller, Meinard. (2019). Multi-media recordings of traditional Georgian vocal music for computational analysis. Paper presented at the 9th International Workshop on Folk Music Analysis Birmingham, England, 2-4 July 2019.
  • Sendlmeier, Walter F; Seebode, Julia. (2006). "Formantkarten des deutschen Vokalsystems" (Format maps of the German vowel system). Retrieved from https://www.kw.tu-berlin.de/fileadmin/a01311100/Formantkarten_des_deutschen_Vokalsystems_01.pdf
  • Sundberg, Johan. (1987). The science of the singing voice. Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press.
  • Sundberg, Johan; Lã, Filipa M.B. and Gill, Brian P. (2013). "Formant tuning strategies in professional male opera singers" Journal of Voice. 27: 278-288.
  • Wolfram Research, Inc. (2020). "Mathematica (12.3)" [Computer program]. Champaign, Ill., USA: Wolfram Research, Inc

Svan Funeral Dirges (Zär): Language-Music Relation and Phonetic Properties

Year 2021, Volume: 5 Issue: 1, 66 - 82, 30.06.2021
https://doi.org/10.33906/musicologist.875348

Abstract

This paper reports on the results of a follow-up study to Scherbaum and Mzhavanadze (2020) and Mzhavanadze and Scherbaum (2020), which jointly describe the acoustical and musicological properties, respectively, of a new collection of field recordings of three-voiced Svan funeral dirges, known as zär in Svan and zari in Georgian. The focus of the present work is on language–music relation and phonetic properties. It was motivated by the pioneering work of Bolle Zemp (1994; 1997; 2001), who for the first time examined this topic from both an ethnomusicological and a linguistic perspective. We revisit some of Bolle Zemp’s observations and assumptions with a substantially expanded (by a factor of 11) data set and by using computational phonetic analysis tools not available at the time of her study. Her observation of correlations between pitch, duration, and timbre features related to the interjection of woj (wai) is consistent with our analysis for only some of the singers. Therefore, rather than assigning a general semantic meaning to these correlations, we offer an alternative interpretation as a natural consequence of the formant tuning techniques, which we found employed in the vocal production of some of the singers.  

Supporting Institution

German Research Foundation

Project Number

“Computational Analysis of Traditional Georgian Vocal Music (GVM)” (DFG MU 2686/13-1, SCHE 280/20-1)

References

  • Boersma, Paul and Weenink, David. (2021). Praat: doing phonetics by computer [Computer program]. (Version 6.1.48), Retrieved from http://www.praat.org/. (17 June 2021)
  • Bolle Zemp, Sylvie. (1994). Géorgie: Polyphonies de Svanétie (Georgia: Polyphony of Svaneti.) [Liner notes], le Chant du Monde: Diffusion Harmonia Mundi.
  • Bolle Zemp, Sylvie. (1997). "Mehrstimmige Wehrufe? Ein Begräbnisgesang aus Swanetien" (Multi-Voiced Laments? A Funeral Chant From Svaneti). Georgica. 20: 134-148.
  • Bolle Zemp, Sylvie. (2001). Khmovnebi da Ak'ordebi. Simghera Zemo Svanetshi (Vowels and Chords. Singing in Zemo Svaneti). Sasuliero Da Saero Musikis Mravalkhmianobis Problemebi (Problems of Polyphony in Sacred and Secular Music), Ed. Tsurtsumia, Rusudan: pp. 292–303. Tbilisi: Tbilisi State Conservatoire.
  • Bozeman, Kenneth W. (2013). Practical vocal acoustics. Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press.
  • Bozeman, Kenneth W.; O'Connor, Karyn (Writers). (2017, 17.06.2021). Formant Tuning, Vowel Modification, Male and Female Passaggio, and Registration. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxttfvX-FRs
  • Hillenbrand, James; Getty, Laura A.; Wheeler, Kimberlee and Clark, Michael J. (1994). "Acoustic characteristics of American English vowels" The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 95: 2875-2875.
  • Mzhavanadze, Nana; Scherbaum, Frank. (2020). "Svan Funeral Dirges (Zär): Musicological analysis" Musicologist. 4(2): 168-197.
  • Mzhavanadze, Nana; Scherbaum, Frank. (2021). "Svan Funeral Dirges (Zär): Cultural Context", accepted for publication in Musicologist.
  • Reetz, Henning; Jongman, Allgard. (2009). Phonetics. Transcription, Production, Acoustics, and Perception. Massachusetts: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Scherbaum, Frank. (2016). "On the benefit of larynx-microphone field recordings for the documentation and analysis of polyphonic vocal music" Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop Folk Music Analysis [Paper presented at the 6th International Workshop Folk Music Analysis on June 15-17, 2016, Dublin, Ireland.]. Beaguitte, Pierre;
  • Duggan, Bryan; Kelleher, John D. (Eds.), (pp. 80-87). Retrieved from https://arrow.tudublin.ie/fema/8/
  • Scherbaum, Frank; Loos, Wolfgang; Kane, Frank and Vollmer, Daniel. (2015). Body vibrations as source of information for the analysis of polyphonic vocal music. Paper presented at the 5th International Workshop on Folk Music Analysis, June 10-12, 2015, University Pierre and Marie Curie.
  • Scherbaum, Frank; Mzhavanadze, Nana. (2018). "A new archive of multichannel-multimedia field recordings of traditional Georgian singing, praying, and lamenting with special emphasis on Svaneti" LaZAR-Database. Retrieved from https://lazardb.gbv.de/
  • Scherbaum, Frank; Mzhavanadze, Nana. (2020). "Svan Funeral Dirges (Zär): Musical Acoustical Analysis of a New Collection of Field Recordings" Musicologist. 4(2): 138-167.
  • Scherbaum, Frank; Mzhavanadze, Nana; Arom, Simha; Rosenzweig, Sebastian and Müller, Meinard. (2020). "Tonal Organization of the Erkomaishvili Dataset: Pitches, Scales, Melodies and Harmonies" Computational Analysis of Traditional Georgian Vocal Music. 1: 1-64.
  • Scherbaum, Frank; Mzhavanadze, Nana; Rosenzweig, Sebastian and Müller, Meinard. (2019). Multi-media recordings of traditional Georgian vocal music for computational analysis. Paper presented at the 9th International Workshop on Folk Music Analysis Birmingham, England, 2-4 July 2019.
  • Sendlmeier, Walter F; Seebode, Julia. (2006). "Formantkarten des deutschen Vokalsystems" (Format maps of the German vowel system). Retrieved from https://www.kw.tu-berlin.de/fileadmin/a01311100/Formantkarten_des_deutschen_Vokalsystems_01.pdf
  • Sundberg, Johan. (1987). The science of the singing voice. Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press.
  • Sundberg, Johan; Lã, Filipa M.B. and Gill, Brian P. (2013). "Formant tuning strategies in professional male opera singers" Journal of Voice. 27: 278-288.
  • Wolfram Research, Inc. (2020). "Mathematica (12.3)" [Computer program]. Champaign, Ill., USA: Wolfram Research, Inc
There are 21 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Music
Journal Section Articles
Authors

Frank Scherbaum 0000-0002-5050-7331

Nana Mzhavanadze 0000-0001-5726-1656

Project Number “Computational Analysis of Traditional Georgian Vocal Music (GVM)” (DFG MU 2686/13-1, SCHE 280/20-1)
Publication Date June 30, 2021
Published in Issue Year 2021 Volume: 5 Issue: 1

Cite

APA Scherbaum, F., & Mzhavanadze, N. (2021). Svan Funeral Dirges (Zär): Language-Music Relation and Phonetic Properties. Musicologist, 5(1), 66-82. https://doi.org/10.33906/musicologist.875348