A System for Describing Vocal Timbre in Popular Song

Abstract

This article presents a system for describing perceptions of vocal timbre via reference to four different areas of sensation involved in the sympathetic mirroring of vocal production. This approach draws from phenomenological and ecological approaches to listening and analysis, and is supported by musicological and scientific literature on the acoustic properties and perception of timbre, and the physiology of vocal production. I demonstrate this descriptive method in brief analyses of Aretha Franklin’s vocal performance in the openings of her recordings of “Respect” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.”

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