Analytical Study of Vocal Vibrato and Mordent of Indian Popular Singers.

Objectives: Two very important ornamentations that singers introduce while singing are vibrato and mordent. Exploring vibrato characteristics of different styles of singing is currently a major interest in musical research. This work presents an analysis of vocal vibrato of Indian pop singers. This paper also reviews a direct relationship between tempo and vibrato, which has been established on Indian pop singers. Another ornament called mordent is also widely used by the Indian singers spontaneously. This study performs an analysis of mordent and tries to define its characteristics with the help of three proposed parameters: mid-extent, mordent duration and landing note deviation.

Study Design: Analytical study.

Methods: A total of 10 Indian pop singers are considered for the study. Reliable vibrato and mordent samples are extracted. The samples are analyzed with the help of PRAAT. Vibrato parameters and mordent parameters are computed from the fundamental frequency contour of the samples.

Results: The analysis of vocal vibrato shows that the mean vibrato rate of the singers ranges from 5.26 Hz to 6.66 Hz, and mean vibrato extent ranges from 41.64 cents to 66.79 cents. The study of mordent parameters shows that mordent duration ranged from 0.1 seconds to 0.2 seconds. The mid-extent is found to range from 18 Hz to 38 Hz, and the landing note deviation is found to be 3.62 Hz.

Conclusion: Vibrato of Indian pop singers is analyzed. A relation between tempo and vibrato could be established. A novel method of analysis for mordent has been proposed, which could help in synthesizing this ornament.