Voice and Singing in
Popular Music in the U.S.A. (1900–1960)
Following articles are selective results of the research project:
Articles
Tilo Hähnel, Tobias Marx, Martin Pfleiderer: Methoden zur Analyse der vokalen Gestaltung populärer Musik, in: Samples. Online publication of the German Society for Popular Music Studies e.V., 12 (2014).
Tilo Hähnel: Vokale Ausdrucksmuster im Kontext von Star-Images und kulturellen Stereotypen. Eine exemplarische Analyse der Vokalstile von Bert Williams und Bing Crosby, in: Samples. Online publication of the German Society for Popular Music Studies e.V., 12 (2014.
Martin Pfleiderer: Popstimmen. Theoretische und methodologische Überlegungen zur vokalen Gestaltung populärer Musik, in: Singstimmen. Ästhetik. Geschlecht. Vokalprofil, ed. by Saskia Maria Woyke, Katrin Losleben, Anno Mungen und Stephan Mösch (= Thurnauer Schriften zum Musiktheater, Bd. 24), Würzburg: Könighausen & Neumann (2014).
Felix Schönfeld, Tilo Hähnel: Vocalmetrics: exploring multiple dimensions of singing in early popular music recordings, in: Proceedings of the Sempre MET 2014. Researching Music, Education, Technology: Critical Insights, ed. by Evangelos Himonides und Andrew King, London, 2014, pp. 145–147.
Martin Pfleiderer: Vocal Pop Pleasures. Theoretical, Analytical and Empirical Approaches to Voice and Singing in Popular Music, in: IASMP@Journal. Online Journal of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, 1/1 (2010).
Martin Pfleiderer: Stimmen populärer Musik. Vokale Gestaltungsmittel und Aspekte der Rezeption, in: Musical Acoustics, Neurocognition, and Psychology of Music / Musikalische Akustik, Neurokognition und Musikpsychologie (= Hamburger Jahrbuch für Musikwissenschaft, Bd. 25), ed. by Rolf Bader, Frankfurt: Peter Lang 2009, pp. 233–274.
Lexicon
Ann-Christin Mecke, Martin Pfleiderer, Bernhard Richter und Thomas Seedorf (Hrsg.): Lexikon der Gesangsstimme (= Handbuch des Gesangs, vol. 3), Laaber: Laaber 2015.
- Christian Bielefeldt: Gene Austin, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Son House, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton, Whispering Jack Smith, Rudy Vallee, Muddy Waters, Bert Williams
- Tilo Hähnel: Mahalia Jackson, Robert Johnson, Al Jolson, Ma Rainey, Ethel Waters
- Tobias Marx: Little Richard, Jimmie Rodgers, Fats Waller
- Martin Pfleiderer: Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, DooWop, Bob Dylan, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday, Howling Wolf, Elvis Presley, Scat, Bessie Smith, Vocalese
Singer portraits
| Dahlhart, Vernon: The Prisoner's Song |
Abstract |
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Figure 1
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| Jackson, Mahalia |
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| Patton, Charley |
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| Waller, Fats |
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| Waters, Ethel |
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| Twang |
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Talks
Martin Pfleiderer: Methodenvielfalt in der Popmusikforschung. Chancen und Herausforderungen am Beispiel der Popgesangsforschung.
1. IASPM-D-A-CH-Konferenz 2014 in Siegen: 'Conceptualising popular music. Öffnungen, Aneignungen, Positionen', 24.–26.10.2014.
International research workshop: 'Stimme und Gesang in der populären Musik der USA (1900–1960)' / 'Voice, Culture, Identity. Vocal Expression in Popular Music of the USA (1900–1960)', Weimar, The Liszt School of Music Weimar (06.–07.06.2014):
- Christian Bielefeldt: Prediger, Popstar, Sex Symbol. Vokalstil und Images von Sam Cooke.
- Tilo Hähnel: Pitch-Gliding as a Stylistic Feature in Blues and American Popular Songs.
- Katrin Horn: Who Made Honky Tonk Angels? Negotiations of Gender in 1950s Country Music.
- Martin Pfleiderer: Doo-Wop, Sh-Boom und Dooby-Doo. Gruppengesang im Rhythm’n’Blues und Rock’n’Roll.
Felix Schönfeld, Tilo Hähnel: Vocalmetrics: exploring multiple dimensions of singing in early popular music recordings.
SEMPRE MET 2014 in London: 'Researching Music, Education, Technology: Critical Insights', 03.–04.04.2014.
Felix Schönfeld, Axel Berndt, Tilo Hähnel, Martin Pfleiderer, Rainer Groh: Vocalmetrics: An interactive software for visualization and classification of music.
Audio Mostly. A conference on interaction with sound in Aalborg: 'Imagining Sound and Music', In Zusammenarbeit mit dem Interactive Institute Swedish ICT, 01.–03.10.2014.
Tilo Hähnel: Gesangsstars populärer Musik. Vokale Ausdrucksmuster im Kontext von Star-Images und kulturellen Stereotypen.
24. Arbeitstagung des Arbeitskreis Studium Populärer Musik e.V. in Gießen: 'Typisch Deutsch - (Eigen)Sichten auf populär Musik in diesem unseren Land', 22.–24.11.2013.
17th Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, Gijón (Spain 23.–28.06.2013):
- Martin Pfleiderer: Examining pop voices - a theoretical and methodological framework.
- Tilo Haehnel: Exploring rough voices: Raspiness and breathiness.
- Tobias Marx: Gliding voices: From glissando to ornament.
Martin Pfleiderer, Tilo Hähnel, Tobias Marx: Vokale Gestaltungsmittel populärer Musik. Analysemethoden, Geschichte, Systematik.
23. Arbeitstagung des Arbeitskreis Studium Populärer Musik e.V. in Basel: 'Geschichte wird gemacht. Zur Historiographie populärer Musik', 23.–25.11.2012.
Martin Pfleiderer: Pop-Stimmen. Theoretische und methodologische Überlegungen zur vokalen Gestaltung populärer Musik.
Internationales Symposion "Singstimmen. Ästhetik – Geschlecht – Vokalprofil", Forschungsinstitut für Musiktheater (fimt) der Universität Bayreuth, Schloss Thurnau, 17.–19. Mai 2012.
Martin Pfleiderer: Geschichte des populären Gesangs.
5. Freiburger Stimmforum "Populärer Gesang", Freiburger Institut für Musikermedizin (fim), Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, 23./24. März 2012.
Abstracts
Articles
Tilo Hähnel, Tobias Marx, Martin Pfleiderer: Methoden zur Analyse der vokalen Gestaltung populärer Musik, in: Samples. Online publication of the German Society for Popular Music Studies e.V., 12 (2014).
Tilo Hähnel: Vokale Ausdrucksmuster im Kontext von Star-Images und kulturellen Stereotypen. Eine exemplarische Analyse der Vokalstile von Bert Williams und Bing Crosby, in: Samples. Online publication of the German Society for Popular Music Studies e.V., Jg. 12 (2014).
Felix Schönfeld, Tilo Hähnel: Vocalmetrics: exploring multiple dimensions of singing in early popular music recordings, in: Proceedings of the Sempre MET 2014. Researching Music, Education, Technology: Critical Insights, ed. by Evangelos Himonides und Andrew King, London, 2014, pp. 145–147.
| Dahlhart, Vernon: The Prisoner's Song |
pdf |
mp3:
Figure 1
The Prisoner's Song was the first million selling song of hillbilly music and the only hit of Vernon Dalhart. He sings with a classical trained voice but the song topic and the musical accompaniment are clearly hillbilly style. Dalhart attained an international following for himself and the commercial country music. The recording opened up hillbilly to a broad audience preparing the rise of later country music. The Prisoner's Song was incorporated into the tradition of country music and was covered many times. |
| Jackson, Mahalia |
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Often, Mahalia Jackson is called the «Queen of Gospel Music». Her style had an influence on many Gospel and R&B singers, and even today's artists refer to Mahalia Jackson when they sing ornaments, grace notes and melismas. When Mahalia Jackson should be described with three words, these would very likely be Embellishment, Unconventionalism, and Intensity. Her ornaments, grace notes and runs are indeed the most important characteristics mentioned in literature. She put emphasis on the transition of notes, often with a small upward jump, followed by a run downwards and a backward run until she reaches the next main tone. However, her ambitus was not strikingly large and rarely exceeded a tenth. Her phrases were short and she did not care about whether or not she takes breath within a sentence or even within a word. Besides those untrained characteristics, the listener will hear a powerful deep voice, which is able to scream, whisper, speak and vibrate depending on the dramaturgy of the song. |
| Patton, Charley |
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Charley Patton, the «Father of the Delta Blues» exemplifies many characteristics of the Delta Blues: a rough and raspy voice, a relaxed articulation, and a minimalistic approach to musical form such as melody and harmony. In his blues singing he avoided singing the third and seventh tone at a discrete pitch; he rather applied a permanent glissando approximately a semitone around the equal tempered pitch or around the «neutral third». Born in the late Nineteenth Century, Patton belongs to the first generation of blues performers, which already had performed years – if not even decades – before they were discovered by the record industry. In this regard, Patton is also an example of an African-American musician who played almost everything the audience liked and therefore was not restricted to blues. Patton is outstanding in so far as even in his recordings he was not restricted to blues. |
| Waller, Fats |
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Fats Waller has been one of the best known and most successful jazz pianists of the 1930s. He sings on some hundred recordings using his voice in a very flexible way. As entertainer Waller is adding comments to the music. He uses roughness and rhythm in order to intensifiy his expression. And he is able to change quickly between different vocalizations to flexibly underpin song texts. By doing so Waller is able to generate further meanings to the lyrics. |
| Waters, Ethel |
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«Sweet Mama Stringbean», as Waters was called in her early years, was a vaudeville star. Her singing style comprised a variety of vocal sounds and timbre, which she used to characterise the role she played on stage. She was able to scream and growl, but the most prominent features were a clear voice with a huge vibration, a clear pronunciation as well as an ironic and humorous approach to vocal expression. Her way to play with her voice seemed to be fun even for herself. Ethel Waters introduced many songs that became standards in the jazz repertoire, therefore she was one of the pioneers in jazz singing, too. |
| Twang |
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Figure 1 |
The definitions of twang are manifold. Twang is used to characterise a sound quality in speech and singing, but also in acoustic signals in general. Regarding the singing voice, which is of interest here, «twang» can refer to the perceived sound as well as to the physiological basis which produces this sound. Moreover, twang used to be seen as a deficient vocal feature, which should be treated in speech therapy. Today, twang is a means of vocal expression in music taught in singing workshops and today's speech therapists use twang to improve the voice quality of patients. |
last update: 20.10.2014