Short-term variation of subglottal pressure for expressive purposes in singing and stage speech: a preliminary investigation.

According to previous investigations, subglottal pressure in singing is adapted not only to loudness but also to fundamental frequency. Here the significance of musical expression to subglottal pressure is analyzed in terms of alternations between stressed and unstressed bar positions. Esophageal pressure was recorded together with the audio signal in a male and a female professional singer using a paranasally introduced pressure transducer while the subjects performed vocal exercises. Also, the subjects gave examples of actors' speech by reading poetry aloud. The results show that subglottal pressure can be used for stressing the first beat in bars and also for increasing the sound level in voiced consonants in actor's speech.