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is still open but “front.” The line tongue root, or partially lowering Narrow Band timbre than it is with
where the voice can attain this level the soft palate, will narrow the band the Wide Spectrum sound, creating
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of strong high frequency harmonics of emphasized frequencies, boosting a unifi ed sound among singers.
without becoming quickly fatigued, a smaller set of harmonics than the Comparing the spectrographs of the
and while remaining pleasant to more robust harmonic presence of Narrow Band and Wide Spectrum
hear, is the sweet spot between the the Wide Spectrum sound. While it sound can off er some clarity on the

effort and ease of any Wide Spec- may be tempting to categorize this acoustic distinctions between these
trum singing. brighter sound as “nasal” in quality, two timbres. Below are images of
actual nasal resonance is not neces- Jasna Duran, a Bulgarian singer, and
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sary to produce this timbre. Idina Menzel, a Broadway singer,
Emphasized Middle While the descriptors of the Nar- both singing a strong pitch around
Harmonics with Attenuated row Band sound often overlap with 400 hz (Images 4 and 5).
Upper and Lower Harmonics those used to categorize the Wide Note how, in the top image, the
(Narrow Band) Spectrum sound (bright, piercing, fundamental pitch is not empha-
This vocal timbre can be de- etc.), there are some important dif- sized. Rather, it is the 2nd through
scribed as a bright, perhaps “biting” ferences. From a vocal ensemble 4th harmonics that are the most
timbre, similar in quality to the Wide perspective, one of the most import- prominent. Also note that, unlike the
Spectrum sound, but with more fo- ant distinctions is that it is easier to spectrograph of the Wide Spectrum
cus on a smaller range of harmon- create timbral homophony with the timbre shown in the bottom image,
ics. The vocal timbre found in the
Bulgarian vocal ensemble tradition
is an excellent example of a sound
that creates this particular spectral
envelope. While authentic Bulgarian
singing takes years to master prop-
erly, it can be used as an aural guide
for a timbre that more generally
emphasizes middle harmonics and
attenuates higher and lower ones. A
brief examination of this particular
singing tradition can also lend clues Image 4. Jasna Duran, a Bulgarian Singer, singing a G4. Note the emphasis on the 2nd,
as to how singers might achieve a 3rd, and 4th harmonics. The range of the spectrograph is showing 200hz - 10,000hz.
similarly Narrow Band timbre.
Nathalie Bernardoni theorizes
that “the development of resonance
tuning in this singing style may be
related to the relatively low impor-
tance of vowel height in some dia-
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lects of Bulgarian.” This lower
vowel height suggests that the nar-
row vocal tract of some Bulgari-
an dialects may be a key aspect of
producing a Narrow Band timbre
since any narrowing of the vocal Image 5: Isolated vocals from Idina Menzel, a Broadway performer singing Let it Go,
tract, adjusting the position of the sustaining an Ab 4. The range of the spectrograph is showing 200hz - 10,000hz.

CHORAL JOURNAL April 2021 Volume 61 Number 9 57