A comment by my asst. choir director last night piqued my curiosity, and I thought I'd post it for other folks. The comment was one part linguistic, one part acoustic, and one part ethnomusicological.
We are singing a program of Russian choral music, and several of the selections have unusually low bass ranges (down to C#2, ~70Hz – 2 or 3 semitones lower than we typically sing). The low part writing may be due in part to the number of Russian basses who have lower vocal ranges (or, whose bottom range is lower) compared to other choral traditions. The asst. director, who is Russian, indicated that the vocal range is influenced by Russian phonology; that something about the placement of vowels in the language leads to an expanded range (she also implied that the phonology influenced the resonance of the voice as well).
This struck me as unlikely. There is clearly variation in what musicians call vocal range within populations (which is why we have tenors, baritones, and basses), and also differences in vocal timbre/resonance. The implication of the choir director was that there were also differences between populations, and that this difference was somehow due to phonological features of L1.
I could think of three reasons why Russian Choirs may have lower basses:
- The male Russian population is not different from other populations in this regard. Instead, there is wide support for the choirs within the population, and thus more men with extremely low voices being trained and auditioning for the choirs we hear. In other cultures, men with these vocal characteristics are more likely to engage in other activities (e.g., athletics). This is a selection bias, pure and simple.
- The male Russian population is different from other populations with respect to vocal range, but this difference reflects physical differences in vocal cord size and vocal tract proportions (leading to greater resonance). That is, physical characteristics relating to vocal range are genetic, and the relative homogeneity of the population leads to greater frequency of these traits.
- As the choir director indicated, the difference reflects some phonological influence on vocal range. If this is the case, what is the mechanism for this? I'm not even sure what causes variations in vocal range. Sure, vocal cord length is a major determinant, but is it the only one?
Any thoughts from the virtual peanut gallery?
