Publisher's Synopsis
New and facetted insights into the acoustics and physiology of singing are presented in this special issue of 'Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica'. The first article discusses the cultural and metaphysical aspects of the voice. Breathing, viewed from two different aspects, is the topic of the next two contributions. One deals with the question, 'Are breathing maneuvers different between the sexes?', the other gives an overview of the state of the art on electromyographic investigations of muscles that participate in the act of singing. Further the question 'Is the female middle voice a combination or balance of the primary registers, chest and falsetto?' is given attention to. The following article discusses the acoustical properties of the sound produced in the western operatic tradition in particular what kind of strategy many tenors use to produce the high B-Flat in the Radames aria of Verdi's Aida. An overview on how visual feedback from the computer screen can help singers with the use of the 'passagio' and how different professional male singers treat this difficult spot in the singing range is given in another contribution. Acoustics of the voice and its spectral representation with emphasis on the way we hear sounds are the subject of the last article. Phoniatricians, speech pathologists as well as singers and singing teachers will find this compilation of recent findings a valuable contribution.
