Horizontal and vertical intonation

tendencies in SATB ensembles

Johanna Devaney

1 August 12, 2010

 Introduction

Experimental Method

Extraction and Analysis of

Performance Data from Recordings

Discussion of Data

Open Questions

Future Work

Johanna Devaney, Intonation in SATB ensembles August 12, 2010 2/25

Introduction
 Empirical evaluations have shown that singers do
not sing in any fixed tuning system (Prame 1997;
Jers & Ternström 2005; Howard 2007a, 2007b)
 This paper presents a study of intonation tendencies
in SATB ensembles
 This ongoing study explores
 The degree of consistency across an ensemble’s
performances of a musical passage
 Whether the organization of musical materials influence
intonation

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Introduction

 This talk presents work undertaken with a number of

collaborators
 Ichiro Fujinaga, Jon Wild, and Peter Schubert at McGill
University
 Michael Mandel at the University of Montreal
 Dan Ellis at Columbia University

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Experimental Method

 Subjects
 Ensemble 1 - Semi-professional SATB ensemble
 Sing together as section leads at Christ Church Cathedral,
Montreal
 Ensemble 2 - Professional SATB ensemble
 Sing together in the professional Montreal-based ensemble,
Viva Voce
 Conductor - Peter Schubert (Viva Voce)
 Materials
 Chord progression by Benedetti
 ‘Es ist ein Ros’ entsprugen’ by Praetorius

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Experimental Method
 Recording environment and equipment
 4.85m x 4.50m x 3.30m lab at the Center for Interdisciplinary
Research in Music Media and Technology with low noise,
reflections, and reverberation time (ITU-standard)
 Each singer was miked with a cardiod headband mic (DPA
4088-F)

 The microphones were run through

a RME Micstasy 8 channel
microphone preamplifier and
RME Madi Bridge
 Recording was done on a Mac Pro

Johanna Devaney, Intonation in SATB ensembles August 12, 2010 6/25

Johanna Devaney, Intonation in SATB ensembles August 12, 2010 7/25
Extraction of Performance Data

 Labeling of note onsets and offsets in the recordings

was done automatically
 This research uses a hybrid dynamic time
warping(DTW)/hidden Markov model(HMM) alignment
algorithm optimized for the singing voice (Devaney,
Mandel, & Ellis 2009)
 Fundamental frequency (F0) estimation for each
frame of audio
 This research uses the YIN algorithm (de Cheveigné &
Kawahara 2002)

Johanna Devaney, Intonation in SATB ensembles August 12, 2010 8/25

Analysis of Performance Data

 Perceived pitch over the duration of each note

 Calculated as the geometric mean of the frame-wise F0
estimates (Brown and Vaughn 1996)
 Evolution of F0 over the duration of the note
 Slope (1st Discrete Cosine Transform Coefficient) -
whether the singers are gliding up or down into the next
note

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 Benedetti - Example Progression

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 Benedetti (Ensemble 1)

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 Benedetti (Ensemble 2)
Horizontal Interval Sizes

Perfect 4th
Major 2nd Descending
Descending Median: 494
Median: 191
Deviations in Cents

EQT

Major 2nd Perfect 5th

Ascending Ascending
Median: 196 Median: 685

Intervals

Johanna Devaney, Intonation in SATB ensembles August 12, 2010 12/25

 Benedetti (Ensemble 1)

Johanna Devaney, Intonation in SATB ensembles August 12, 2010 13/25

 Benedetti (Ensemble 2)
Vertical Interval Sizes
Deviations in Cents

EQT

Major 3rd Perfect 5th

Median: 412 Median: 706
Perfect 8th
Median: 1204

Perfect 4th
Minor 3rd Median: 496 Major 6th
Median: 298 Median: 902

Intervals

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Tuning reference in Benedetti progression
 Theoretical detuning (tuning to sustained note)

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Praetorius - Es ist ein Ros’ ent sprungen

V vi V I

V vi V I

V I
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 Praetorius (Ensemble 2)

Horizontal Interval Sizes

Minor 2nd
Major 2nd Ascending
Descending Median: 104
Median: 209
Major 2nd
Ascending
Deviations in Cents

Median: 194

EQT
Minor 3rd Minor 2nd
Descending Descending
Median: 311 Median: 110

Intervals

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 Praetorius (Ensemble 2)

Vertical Interval Sizes

Perfect 4th Perfect 12th

Perfect 5th Median:1192
Median: 494
Median: 693

Major 3rd
Median: 384
Deviations in Cents

EQT

Minor 3rd
Minor 6th Major 6th
Median: 305
Median: 802 Median: 893

Intervals

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 Praetorius (Ensemble 2)

Major Third Tuning

Perfect Cadence
Imperfect Cadence
(words)
Deviations in Cents

(words)
Median: 381
Median: 393

EQT
Imperfect Cadence
(mi)
Median: 378

Imperfect Cadence
(mi)
Median: 387

Intervals

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 Praetorius (Ensemble 2)
Cadential Melodic Intervals

Major 2nd Minor 2nd

Descending Ascending
Median: 202 Median: 104
Deviations in Cents

EQT
Major 2nd
Descending
Median: 217 Minor 2nd
Ascending
Median: 109

Intervals

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 Praetorius (Ensemble 2)
Slope

Major 2nd
Major 2nd
Descending
Ascending
Minor 3rd Minor 2nd
Cents/Second

Descending Descending

EQT

Minor 2nd
Ascending

Intervals

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Open Questions
 Data Analysis Issues
 Is there a better model for perceived pitch?
 How much variation (in cents) is significant across
performances?
 How to determine what is typical intonation and what is
expressive?
 Research Questions
 How accurately can singers replicate a tuning?
 What is the effect of training?
 What is the effect of absolute pitch?
 What is the effect of more than one singer to a part?
 What is the effect of vowel?

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Ongoing and Future Work
 More focused experiments
 Individual singers matching pitches and singing
sequential and simultaneous intervals against recorded
stimuli
 Individual singers with a recorded N-1 ensemble
 Shorter, more focused exercises for SATB ensemble

2^ ^3 5^ ^6 ^
4
^
5

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 Thank you

Johanna Devaney, Intonation in SATB ensembles August 12, 2010 24/25

Brown, J. C., and K. V. Vaughn. 1996. Pitch center of stringed instrument vibrato tones.Journal of
the Acoustical Society of America. 100:3, 1728-35.

de Cheveigné, A., and H. Kawahara. 2002. YIN, a fundamental frequency estimator for speech and
music. Journal of the Society of the Acoustical Society of America. 111(4): 1917–30.

Devaney, J., M. I. Mandel, D. P. W. Ellis. 2009. Improving MIDI-audio alignment with acoustic
features. In Proceedings of the IEEE Workshop on Audio and Signal Processing to Audio and
Acoustics. 45–8.

Howard, D.M. 2007a. Equal or non-equal temperament in a cappella SATB singing. Logopedics
Phoniatrics Vocology. 32: 97–94.

Howard, D.M. 2007b. Intonation Drift in A Capella Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass Quartet Singing With
Key Modulation. Journal of Voice. 21(3): 300–15.

Jers, H., & Ternström, S. 2005. Intonation analysis of a multi-channel choir recording. TMH-QPSR,
47(1), 1–6.

Prame, E. 1997. Vibrato extent and intonation in professional western lyric singing. Journal of the
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