Voices Within Voices: Developing a New Analytical Approach to Vocal Timbre by Examining the Interplay of Emotionally Valenced Vocal Timbres and Emotionally Valenced Lyrics

Abstract

Aims/Goals<br/> This thesis presents a new analytical technique for vocal timbre based on the hypothesis that emotion expressed in vocal timbre impacts emotional perception of lyrics.<br/> Background information<br/> Vocal timbre is a highly salient musical feature that, arguably, contributes significantly to our emotional experience of a song. Despite this, analytical techniques for vocal timbre remain in their infancy. Today, this is changing as technological developments increasingly allow for vocal timbre to be preserved and studied in a systematic way. The present research capitalises on these developments, using them to facilitate the examination of how emotional vocal timbres impact emotional perception of lyrics.<br/> Methodology<br/> Since there exists little empirical research on the hypothesis which underlies this analytical technique, and since the experience of vocal timbre could be considered highly subjective, it was necessary to first experimentally test if/how vocal timbre impacts lyric perception. To this end, a reception test was conducted to examine whether vocal timbre on its own has emotional valence, and whether this emotional valence is salient enough to impact emotional perception of words. Results from this test supported the hypothesis, showing that participants were significantly less accurate at identifying the emotional valence of words when these words were sung with a mismatched emotional vocal timbre.<br/> The analytical technique itself is multilayered. First, the recording is taken as the basis of analysis. Then, the vocal timbre is described, and its emotional valence is assessed, through Vocal Timbre Features (a system, inspired by the work of van Leeuwen (1999) defined and developed to aid in describing vocal timbre and, potentially, categorising its emotional valence). Observations made by aurally detecting and annotating the Vocal Timbre Features can be confirmed visually through spectrographs. The synergies between emotions identified in the vocal timbre and that conveyed through lyrics can then be assessed using adapted diagrammatic vocabulary sets (inspired by the work of Dennis Smalley (1986, 1997)).<br/> Conclusions<br/> In summary, this thesis presents a new analytical technique that allows one to analyse vocal timbre in terms of its emotional meaning, and in terms of how this emotional meaning impacts emotional perception of lyrics. It also offers a framework through which one may conduct efficient, aurally based, analyses of vocal timbre more generally. This thesis has also shown that the experience of emotion in vocal timbre, and its impact on lyric perception, may be similar across listeners (i.e., intersubjective).