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A
4
4
0
eond-
cricothyroid
40
4:.4.tfr. *. lM*..),-a
lateral
I0V
4 W O W - .- .. I L 4 , J
.U u r
vocalis
00V
audio
.
ii
CLEARING
LOTTAL PLOSIVE
MAGINARY [h]
THROAT
0
econd
cricothyroid
L.
wpnw4gsrd 1.
lateral
GOAV
L
vocalis
44V
_
'
_
il
rI ri
.
Vowel {o]
udio
Subject C
SPIRATE ATTACK
OFT ATTACK
FIG. I.
VARIOUS ATTACKS, FEMALE
Voics. TOP LINE SHOWS FUNDAMENTAL FREQUENCY (F0)
WHICH THE EAR PERCEIVES AS PITCH. A, IS ON THE TREBLE STAFF. NEXT THREE LINES ARE
EMG OF CIUCOTHYROID, LATERAL CRICO ARYTENOID, AND VOCALIS MUSCLES. BOTrOM LINE
(AUDIO) IS THE MICROPHONE SIGNAL. IT SHOWS THE INTENSITY, WHICH IS PERCFIVED AS
LOUDNESS. NOTE RESEMBLANCE OF GLOTTAL PLOSIVE TO CLEARING THROAT.
uate the energy potentials, especially
when the microphonic effect is greater
than the static. The higher voices are
more susceptible to this defect, and
both Subject C and Subject R had a
good deal of it. In the case of the latter
almost the entire vocalis record was
unreadable.
In spite of these hazards, a great deal
of data was accumulated, which will be
reported in this and the next two arti-
cles. In addition to the intrinsic muscles
mentioned, five extrinsic muscles were
also investigated: the digastric, thyro-
hyoid, sternohyoid, palatopharyngeus,
and levator veil palatini. The behavior
of these muscles will be reported in the
final article of the series.
At first glance the EMG data seem
to be the same for all the muscles, es-
pecially the intrinsic muscles. Anyone
hoping to find clearly that one muscle
does something specific (for example,
produces chest voice) and another mus-
cle does something else (like produc-
ing falsetto) will be disappointed. The
physiology of the larynx is not that
simple. When one muscle works, most
of the others do also. As analysis of the
data progresses, the logical concepts of
physiology based upon the location of
the muscles are confirmed, and in sub-
tle ways muscular independence can be
traced, particularly with reference to
registration. But it would give a wrong
impression to present these findings
first.
Laryngeal synergy in the attack
EMG of the glottal plosive show all
the muscles contracting somewhat ex-
cessively before the attack, and drop-
ping off to the effort needed for that
particular tone as it is being sustained.
The muscles in every case show activity
before the actual sound is heard. Some-
times the amount of time between the
first sign of energy in a muscle and the
beginning of the tone is longer than
that of other muscles. This is often the
case with the cricothyroids, which
stretch the cords, and set up the appro-
priate tension for the desired pitch
before the tone is attacked. The differ-
ence in time between the onset of en-
ergy potentials in the EMG and the on-
set of sound in the audio recording is
expressed as: At. The symbol s is
used in mathematics to stand for some
significant difference, and t stands
for time. The word latency is also
used for this.
When a subject is asked to use
marked glottal plosives, his at may be
rather long, because he is selfconscious
about it. However, it was found, espe-
cially when attacks were made in rapid
succession, that the latency period was
no greater for the glottal plosive than
for other attacks. Four different attacks
were performed repeatedly by each
subject, over 250 in all.
The glottal plosive (often called the
glottal stroke ) and the aspirate at-
tacks need not be defined again. The
soft attack is one in which the tone
does not reach full power until a few
tenths of a second after its onset. All
four subjects in this study prefer the
imaginary [hi, which is like an aspi-
rate, except that the amount of time
and breath wasted is so little that no
aspirate is heard. A pneumotacho-
graphic study of the imaginary [h]
appeared in The NATS Bulletin in
1964 (Vennard and Isshiki). EMG of
different attacks are shown in Figs. 1
and 2.
aryngeal synergy in the vowels
The difference between the vowels
is not seen as clearly in the intrinsic,
musculature as it is in the extrinsic.
That is to say, vowel pronunciation is
more a function of the resonators than
it is of the vibrator. Isshiki noted in
1959 that if a subject intends to sine
the vowels [i] [u]
[a]
all at the same
loudness, he will actually produce an
[al with much greater intensity than
the others, because he will produce the
same subglottal pressure for all three
vowels, and the greater mouth opening
for [a] will
allow more sound to emerge.
If, however, the subject will watch a
sound level meter and bring all the
vowels to the same intensity, it will re-
quire greater pressure for the vowels [i]
and
[u.
(The ear interprets intensity
as loudness, though in this ease the
difference between the vowels is prob-
ably not perceived as being as great
as the intensity differential actually is.)
This was confirmed in the present
study, in which Subject V sang 75
sustained tones with changes of vowel
(see Fig. 3). Subglottal pressure is
changed by differences in muscular re-
[ lease turn the page.]
OCTOBER 1970
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F
o
3
----.-.--.---.---.--
0 3
cricothyroid
________
0second
lateral
15 1V
-,_._ 4o
1 - ]
vocalis
4 001 j V
-_
audio
- -
tz._.__
COUGH
LOTTAL PLOSIVE
IMAGINARY-h]
3
second
I 5O pV
ii
l 5 O jV
- - ------
OIiV
F
cricothyroid
lateral
vo cat is
sistance to the breath flow. When effort
was the same for all three vowels, [a]
was much more ample. When the sub-
ject kept all the vowels at the same
level, the EMG of all three muscles
were greater for [i] and
[u].
With these
trained singers the larynx did not ap-
pear to behave differently for different
vowels unless the singer took pains to
keep them all at the same volume.
However, with abnormal production
some differences between vowels did
o c c u r .
Laryngeal s
nergy
in changes
of
pitch and intensity
Hundreds of scales on different
vowels and with varieties of registra-
tion and of production technics were
performed. They
will
be reported in
detail in future articles. Subject V sang
octave leaps, ascending and descend-
ing, with and without portarnento. Each
vocalise was done six times. It is well
known that the cricothyroids stretch
the vocal cords for higher pitches, and
so the change in cricothyroid activity
was no surprise. However, the lateral
and vocalis made the same change.
(See Fig. 4.)
The upper line of the graph shows
and it shows changes in volume. It is
similarly correlated with energy in the
three muscles.
Lary
ngeal synergy in the vibrato
It is apparent in all the EMG that
the vibrato, as heard in the pitch and
intensity of the tone, is following a vi-
brato in the muscles themselves at an
interval of about 0.05 second. The only
muscle which does not show a vibrato
is the interarytenoid (see Fig.
5 .
This
muscle adducts the vocal folds, and
holds them together during phonation.
Other muscles fluctuate, and some-
times even become inactive during pho-
nation, but if this happened in the in-
terarytenoid the glottis would open and
phonation would cease. The interary-
tenoid increases activity with the other
muscles for greater phonatory efforts
(either in loudness or in altitude of
pitch) but it never falls below the
minimum needed to keep the vocal
cords together. Vibrato was found at
least part of the time in all the other
muscles studied, including the extrin-
s ic .
Each subject was asked to sing sus-
tained tones with normal vibrato, slow
marcato, rapid marcato, and chuckling.
Three more or less distinct rates were
discovered, as shown in Table I. In-
cidentally, none of the subjects had a
vibrato rate of
6-7.75 per second, such
as Seashore found in the singers of
Caruso s day.
The normal rate of the vibrato in-
fluences the tempo at which voluntary
marcato can be performed. Examples
of staccato, slow marcato, fast mar-
cato, and chuckling are shown in Fig.
6. The slow marcato has three vibrati
pitch, or fundamental frequency (ab-
breviated 17
). When the descending
skip was made without portamento all
three muscles showed a sudden de-
crease in exertion, and in 0.1 second
the pitch had dropped an octave. When
there was a portamento the muscles
diminished their effort more gradually,
especially the vocalis, and it took more
like 0.4 second for the pitch to drop
all the way. The lower line of the graph
is the record made by the microphone,
a u d io
Vowel [o] ASPIRATE ATTACK
OFT ATTACK
ubject V
FIG. 2:
V A RIOU S
ATTACKS
MALE
Voicn.
NOTE RESEMBLANCE OF (;IOTrAL PLOSIVF. TO
COUGHI NG.
C
F .
_--
C 4
_-_------.-----
3
-
sec_ _
cricothyroid
I50pV
I
lateral
I 5 p V
-
-* 4
e
vocalis
% NSSSNdH
a u di o
- -
- -
Vowel [a]
O
PORTAMENTO
ORTAMENTO
Subject
FIG. 3:
CHANGES OF PITCH
W I T H A N D W I T H O U T P O R T A M E N T O . T H E R E R E A L LY I S A PO R T A -
ME NTO IN BOTH CASE S, BUT ONE IS SO BRIE F AN D AT SUCH A L OW VOL UME AS SE E N IN TH E AU-
DI O GRAPH) T H AT I T IS NOT PERC EI VED.
1 8
HE NATS BULLETIN
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F. C4
second
cricothyroid
5 V
lateral
W
*Wt1N **j
vocalis
audio
u a
iJ
owels
J J L
[i]
I
U I
ubject V
FIG. 4: Caias O F
V O W E L ,
w n u
A N D wrrsiou r
C O N T R O L O F V O L U M E . S EE D I SC U S S IO N D S
T E X T. T H E A T T E M PT T O H O L D D O W N T H E V O L U M E O F
[a]
IN THE R]Glff HAND GRAPH C AUSES
THE
VIBRATO TO DISAPPEAR (SEE PITCH GRAPH AT
ro p , F0).
F
o e c o n
lateral
li y
]
interarytenoid
_________
audio
Vowel
a]
STRAIGHT
IBRATO
ubject V
FIG 5:
PR ESEN C E A N D A B SEN C E or
VIB R A TO. VIB R A TO C A N B E SEEN IN LA TER A L C R 1 -
COARYTENOID MUSCLE, AS IN ALL OTHER MUSCLES, EXCEPT INTERARYTENOID.
Normal Vibrato Fast
arcato Chuckle
Subject R
5.25/second
6-7/second 10-11/second
Subject C 5.75/second 6.25-7.5/second
7.5-9/second
Subject M 5/second
5 6/second
10-10.5/second
Subject V
5/second
6.5-7/second
7.5-8.5/second
T A B L E 1 :
R A T E S O F P U L S A T IO N I N V O C A L T O N E .
for each accent, at the normal rate of
the vibrato, which in this case is 5/sec.
When the marcato is done entirely by
breath impulses the pitch is more
steady. When the laryngeal muscles
contribute to the marcato, there is a
drop in pitch before each accent. This
is not readily perceptible to the ear,
because it is very brief and there is a
drop in loudness at the same time. In
the rapid marcato, the vibrato is made
to conform to a faster frequency. 7/sec
here. The chuckle is still more rapid.
8/sec.
The same rates apply to melisma, or
florid ornamentation. Ordinary singing
is likely to assume tempi in which the
normal vibrato rate will come out even,
but demands for accelerandi will speed
this up. All four subjects performed
rapid scales and arpeggios in various
ways: as legato as possible, marcato
using abdominally produced breath im-
pulses, and with chuckling technic. It
was assumed that attempting to per-
form the runs in the manner of chuck-
ling could speed them up. This suc-
ceeded in only a few cases, and is
probably used best only for brief orna-
ments, like turns and mordents. Most
of the florid work, including runs from
Handel's Messiah, were performed at
the fast vibrato rate. Subject C pro-
duced a good trill at
6.5/sec
her fast
marcato frequency.
Vibrato did not appear continuously
in all the muscles, but when it did the
intrinsic all synchronized in this re-
spect. The same was true also of the
extrinsic muscles. At first it appeared
that the idea of diadochokinesis, of an-
tagonistic muscles working alternately
to produce trembling, was not sup-
ported by this study. However, in one
instance, shown in Fig. 7, the electrodes
originally placed in the cncothyroid
slipped out and registered the energy
potentials of the sternohyoid instead.
Diadochokinesis was discovered be-
tween this muscle, which is extrinsic,
and the lateral cricoarytenoid, which is
intrinsic. The vocalis was not very ac-
tive at this moment, but to the extent
that it showed vibrato it synchronized
with the lateral.
A check of vibrati registered in all
the muscles studied showed that while
the energy peaks in the vibrato of the
intrinsic muscles
pre eded
the high
phases of the pitch vibrato, the energy
peaks in the vibrato of the extrinsic
muscles
oin ided
with the high phases
of the pitch vibrato. This behavior was
not completely consistent, but at least
eighty percent of the vibrato peaks con-
formed to this pattern. In other words,
the vibrato of the tone followed the
vibrato of the intrinsic muscles, and
between each two peaks in the vibrato
pattern of the intrinsic muscles there
was a reaction in the form of a vibrato
peak in the extrinsic muscles.
ummary
Four professional singers, two so-
pranos, a tenor, and a bass, participated
in an electromyographic investigation
of the cricothyroid, lateral cricoary-
tenoid, and vocalis muscles. In one
subject the interarytenoid was in-
cluded. Five extrinsic muscles were
also studied.
Scales were performed throughout a
range from C
to E
. There were
(roughly) 6 four-octave scales, 75
three-octave scales, 75 two-octave
scales, 150 scales of an octave and a
fourth,
375
one-octave scales in various
registers, vowels, and singing technics.
Sustained tones were sung for a va-
riety of purposes. There were over
250 in various registers, 200 swelltones
(messa di voce), 400 using assorted
technics and vowels,
250
brief tones
using different attacks.
In addition 125 florid or melismatic
vocalises were performed. Several voice
[Please turn the page ]
OCTOBER
197
9
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G 3
F
r,
lateral
vocalis
audio
-- -- --- -
STACCATO
D
1- .
3
second
lateral
vocalis
audio
RAPID MARCATO
F 1
Isecond
lateral
irtte rarytenoid
audio
-.
A
( . 1 3
MARCATO
i e cond
s o a v
15IsV
CHUCKLING
03
o
second
5 O O V
m im
l .r.w9.
r E
5 O p V
-
t.. . ;
FIG 6: Viou
RATES OF PU
SATION. NOT
THAT
TIM
SCALE IS DO
BLED TO FAC
I T A TE C O U N T IN
OF FREQUE
CIES. CHUC
LING
MAY B
CALLED AN E
CEPTION TO TH
RULE THAT TH
INTERARYTENO
NEVER SHOW
VIBRATO.
Acn
ALLY THE R
LAXING OF TH
MUSCLE SEVE
AL TIMES PE
SECOND IS WHA
GIVES THE FEEL
ING OF ASP
RATES, HA-u
HA, ALTHOUG
BOTH THE PITC
GRAPH (F,) AN
THE AUDIO GRAP
SHOW THA
COMPLETE SEP
ARATION (AS I
STACCATO DOE
NO T TAKE PLAC
second
s a a v
... .-
I50,V
A,
Vowel [a].
APID MARCATO
HUCKLING
A4..
'0
sternohyoid
av
lateral
vocal is1
audio
Vowel [a]
ubject C
-7G
7:
DI.thoclIoKlNIsls BLTWI-LN INTRINSIC AND EXTRINSIC
Muscuis
NOTE THAT BOTH
TIME- AND AM PI ITUDE-SCALES ARE DOUBLE THOSE OF THE FIRST FIVE FIGURES. THIS IS TO
MAKE THE VIBRATI EASIER TO SEE.
Subject C
WAS ALTERNATELYINHIBITING AND RELEASING
HER VIBRATO. PLACING A VERTICAL. STRAIGHT EDGE IN THE GRAPHS WILL SHOW THAT PEAKS
IN THE STERNOHYOID GRAPH COINCIDE WITH PEAKS IN THE PITCH GRAPH (F0). THEY
COME JUST AFTER THE PEAKS IN THE LATERAL CRICOARYTENOID GRAPH. PEAKS IN THE
VIBRATO OF INTRINSIC MUSCLES ALWAYS PRECEDE PEARS IN THE PITCH-VIBRATO. THERE
IS
RI FMISH IN THE VOCALIS GRAPH AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TONE.
Ti us
IS AN ARTIFACT
OF THE 1-QUIP MENT AND DOES NOT REPRESENT THE BEHAVIOR OF THE MUSCLE,
Subject V
building exercises were sung, over 225
examples. Samples of normal whisper
ing, stage whispering, and vocal fry
totaled over 125.
Since not more than three muscle
could be studied simultaneously, the
above totals must be assigned over one
half to intrinsic and the balance to
extrinsic investigations.
The most readily observable fac
was synergy in which all the muscle
showed more or less parallel EMG. The
vibrato appeared at least part of the
time in all
muscles, the intrinsic mus
cles alternating with the extrinsic in d
adochokinesis. The interarytenoid wa
an exception. It showed no vibrato, and
there was a minimum level of intensity
below which it could not fall if phona
tion were to continue.
O
REFERENCES
BASMAJIAN,
I. V., and G. STRcK :
A new
bipolar electrode for electromyography
Journal of Applied Physiology, 17, 849
1962 .
FAABORG-ANDERSON, KNUD:
Electromy-
ographic investigation of intrinsic laryngea
muscles in humans. Copenhagen, Acta
2 0
HE NATS BULLETIN
8/11/2019 Laryngeal Synergy
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Physiologica Scandinavica, Vol. 140, Sup.
140, 1957.
HIR.uo
M I N O R U , J O H N O H A L A a nd TI M
SMITH:
Current techniques in obtaining
EMG data. Working Papers in Phonetics,
7 , U CL A ,
Nov. 1967.
HIRAN0 MIN0RU and 101114
OHAL A: Use of
hooked-wire electrodes for electromyog-
raphy of the intrinsic laryngeal muscles.
Journal of Speech and H ear ing R esearch
in press).
HIP.ANo,
M. W.
VENNARD and I. OHALA;
R egulat ion of R egis ter , P itch and Inten-
s i ty of Voice ; an e lect romyographic in-
vestigation of intrinsic laryngeal muscles.
Folia Phoniatrica, Vol. 22,
No. 1,
1970
HIR0T0 IKucHIRo MINoRu HIRANO Y0RI-
KAZU
TOYO GUM I an d
T A X E M O T O S H I N :
Electromyographic investigation of the in-
trinsic laryngeal muscles related to speech
sounds. Annals of O tology, Rhinology and
Laryngology, 76, No. 4, 861-872, 1967.
HIR 0T0 , e t a l . a bove) : A new method o f
placement of a needle electrode in the in-
trinsic laryngeal m uscles for electromyog-
raphy. O to-rhino-laryngology Clinic, Kyo -
to, 55, 499-504, 1 9 6 2
lssl-UKI NoBuinKo:
M emoirs of research
center of voice science. Kyoto, Oto-rhino-
laryngology Clinic, 52,
1 9 5 9
K A T S U K I ,
YA suji: The function of the pho-
natory muscles. Japanese Journal of Phys-
iology, 1, 29-36, 1950.
VENNARD , WILLIAM, and
NoBumKo
I 5 S H I X I :
Coup de glot te , a misund erstood expres-
sion. THE NA TS BU LLETIN , Feb. 1964.
Th is research, the first in a series of dc c-
tromyographic studies, was partially support-
ed by the National Institutes of Health,
United Sta tes Department of H eal th , Educa-
t ion, and W elfare . The elec tromyography
was done a t the Univers i ty of Cali fornia at
Lo s An geles , in the phonetics Laboratory,
presided over by PETER LAD EvOGED. Support-
ing aerodyna mic studies were carried out at
the Ins t itu te of Laryngology and Voice D is -
orders, HANS VON LEDEN, director, affiliated
with the University of Southern California.
N41NOR11 JIIRANI), M.D.,
is now in the De-
partment of Otolaryngology, School of Medi-
cine, University of Kurume, Kyushu, Japan.
/l was in the United States on a Fuibright
hange,
performing
research at tire Insti-
uie of Laryngology and Voice Disorders (of-
i iated with USC) and at the Phonetics De-
partment, UCLA .
JOHN
011A, PH.D.,
is now in the De-
partment of Linguistics at the University of
California at Berkeley. He was a graduate
student at UCLA and assisted in the re-
,arch of Dr. Hirano,
after
which he spent
a year at the Research Institute of Logo-
t eJics and Phoniatrics. School of Medicine,
f ,zinersity of Tokyo.
WILLIAM VENNAR D, M. M., is a past presi-
dent of NA TS. He is chairman of the Voice
Department of the University of Southern
California and has taught summer sessions
at the Meadow Brook School and the BIos-
rnFestival S chool.
SEE YOU IN D LL S
NATS
PLACEMENT
SERVICE
?4 et4
1 6 4 e e
_ OR SOME TIME NATS members
J
have requested a placement service
where applicants and institutional rep-
resentatives could be brought together
at the national convention for inter-
views and auditions. We are happy to
announce that such a service will be
available for the first time at the Dallas
Convention this December.
All NATS members interested in lo-
cating a new position and all institu-
tions with openings are urged to regis-
ter with the NATS Placement Service.
All applicant
vitae and position de-
scriptions must be filed prior to De-
cember 20 1970 with
WESLEY
ABBOTT, NA TS
Placement Service Co-
ordinator,
LUTHER COLLEGE DE-
CORAH, IOWA 52101.
Applicant vitae
must also be accompanied by a $10.00
placement service fee.
Institutions with an opening should
submit a copy of the position descrip-
tion normally prepared and distributed
by the institution. It will also be help-
ful
to know whether or not the institu-
tion will be represented at the Dallas
Convention by someone prepared to
interview applicants.
NATS members wishing to take ad-
vantage of the placement service
should submit a vita, typed on
8 x
11" paper, one side only. Non-members
must also submit a
Membership Appli-
cation Form
accompanied by a separate
check covering membership dues.
This vita must contain the
following
information in this order
[ lease write
legibly ]:
1.
Na me, age, marital status.
2.
Address (current and permanent)
including ZIP, phone.
3.
When a vailable.
4.
Voice, list three representative
Se -
lections from repertoire.
5.
Subjects qualif ied to teach, in order
of preference.
6.
Educa tion: List institutions attended,
degrees earned, teachers studied
with. Include dates.
7.
Experience: List employers or in-
stitutions, responsibilities or subjects
taught . Include d ates .
8.
Significant honors and awards.
9.
List nam es, addresses and relation-
ship
to you of three or more persons
who could provide letters of refer-
ence and whether or not these letters
are already in some accessable place-
ment tile, like a university placement
service.
Do not send ref
erences
or
have
re
f
erences
cent to
THE
NATS
P L A C E M E N T S E R V IC E
10.
O ther information pertinent to your
qualifications or type of position
desired.
11.
Are you a NA TS M ember? I f no t,
is membership application and check
covering dues enclosed.
12.
Are you planning to attend the
Dallas Convention?
At the Dallas Convention, applicants
and institutional representatives will
have access to the information con-
tained in the files. It must be under-
stood that all information pertainiilg to
vacancies supplied to applicants will
be considered confidential. An audition
room with piano will be available.
The success of this long-needed ven-
ture depends upon many things, but
it is especially dependent upon insti-
tutions listing their vacancies with the
service and then sending a representa-
tive to the convention.
Be sure your
school takes advantage
o
this ser-
vice.
13
LUNKLEY
[Continued front
page iS ]
wonderful shops and stores because the
Statler Hilton is downtown only a block
or two from famed Neiman-Marcus
and other special places.
There will be more program delights
announced in coming weeks.
V E R A
REDGROVE NEILSON,
program chair-
man,
and her committee from the six
states of the region have worked hard
to find and bring exciting and stimulat-
ing persons for your edification and en-
joyment. The chairmen
of
the conven-
tion,
BRUCE
G
LUNKLEY, EDWARD
BAIRD,
and
JAMES McKINNEY,
hope
that you will journey to Dallas and help
make this a big, happy, exciting, and
enriching convention. There is a regis-
tration blank and hotel reservation
form for your use on cover four of this
publication. You are urged to pre-reg-
ister for both the convention and your
hotel accomodations
so
that your arri-
val in Dallas can be pleasant and quick-
ly handled. You-all come
[Bruce G.
Lunklevj
O
O C T O B E R / 1 9 70
1
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