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
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 phr...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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The Ohio State University Libraries
2014-05-01
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| Series: | Empirical Musicology Review |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.18061/emr.v9i1.3729 |
| _version_ | 1819154893097664512 |
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| author | Randolph Johnson David Huron Lauren Collister |
| author_facet | Randolph Johnson David Huron Lauren Collister |
| author_sort | Randolph Johnson |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | 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 musical-theatre singers and opera singers. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T15:28:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d56ed1faa2804d3da304e39ee6c1c570 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1559-5749 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T15:28:19Z |
| publishDate | 2014-05-01 |
| publisher | The Ohio State University Libraries |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Empirical Musicology Review |
| spelling | doaj.art-d56ed1faa2804d3da304e39ee6c1c5702022-12-21T18:21:26ZengThe Ohio State University LibrariesEmpirical Musicology Review1559-57492014-05-019122010.18061/emr.v9i1.3729Music and Lyrics Interactions and their Influence on Recognition of Sung Words: An Investigation of Word Frequency, Rhyme, Metric Stress, Vocal Timbre, Melisma, and Repetition PrimingRandolph Johnson0David Huron1Lauren Collister2School of Music, Ohio State UniversitySchool of Music, Ohio State UniversityDepartment of Linguistics, University of PittsburghThis 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 musical-theatre singers and opera singers.https://doi.org/10.18061/emr.v9i1.3729intelligibilitysinginglyricstext setting |
| spellingShingle | Randolph Johnson David Huron Lauren Collister 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 intelligibility singing lyrics text setting |
| title | 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 |
| title_full | 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 |
| title_fullStr | 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 |
| title_full_unstemmed | 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 |
| title_short | 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 |
| title_sort | 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 |
| topic | intelligibility singing lyrics text setting |
| url | https://doi.org/10.18061/emr.v9i1.3729 |
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