Formant frequencies in Middle Eastern singers

Hamdan, Abdul-latif; Tabri, Dollen; Deeb, Reem; Rifai, Hani; Rameh, Charbel; Fuleihan, Nabil

doi:10.1016/j.amjoto.2007.05.008

« Previous Next »American Journal of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Medicine and Surgery
Volume 29, Issue 3 , Pages 180-183, May 2008

Formant frequencies in Middle Eastern singers

Abdul-latif Hamdan, MD, FACS
- Department of Otolaryngology, American University of Beirut Medical Center, PO Box 11-0236, Beirut, Lebanon
- Corresponding author. Department of Otolaryngology, American University of Beirut, PO Box 11-0236, Beirut, Lebanon. Tel.: +961 1 746660; fax: +961 1 746660.
Dollen Tabri, MS
- Department of Otolaryngology, American University of Beirut Medical Center, PO Box 11-0236, Beirut, Lebanon
Reem Deeb, DM
- Department of Civilization Sequence, School of Arts and Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon
Hani Rifai, MD
- Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon
Charbel Rameh, MD
- Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon
Nabil Fuleihan, MD
- Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon

Received 3 April 2007 published online 20 March 2008.

Abstract

Purpose

This work was conducted to describe the formant frequencies in a group of Middle Eastern singers and to look for the presence of the singer's formant described in operatic singers.

Material

A total of 13 Middle Eastern singers were enrolled in this study. There were 5 men and 8 women.

Method

Descriptive analysis was performed to report the various formants (F1, F2, F3, and F4) in both speaking and singing. The Wilcoxon test was used to compare the means of the formants under both conditions.

Results

For both sexes combined, for the /a/ vowel, F1 singing was significantly lower than F1 speaking (P = .05) and F3 singing was significantly higher than F3 speaking (P = .046). For the /u/ vowel, only F2 singing was significantly higher than F2 speaking (P = .012). For the /i/ vowel, both F2 and F3 singing were significantly lower than F2 and F3 speaking, respectively (P = .006 and .012, respectively). There was no clustering of the formants in any of the Middle Eastern sung vowels.