The determination of the type of the human voice on the basis of the volume of the larynx, the trachea and the big bronchial tubes

*Riga Stradins University (Medical Academy of Latvia)

In the process of forming of sound organs, which actually are air containing cavities, take part as a resonator:

• 
  mouth cavity,
  
• 
  nasal cavity, nasal side cavities,
  
• 
  pharynx,
  
• 
  larynx,
  
• 
  trachea and big bronchial tubes.
  

For an opera and concert singers it is important to differentiate precisely voice categories, because they have to fill large halls with their voice. If they are qualified in the false voice type, their power to fill halls with voice reduces. When a vocalist sings by force in the unsuitable voice category, it results in voice damages and even absolute loss of voice(2,5).

It is particularly difficult to determine a voice type of vocalists-beginners and less developed voices, because a diapason of voice is not entirely developed yet.

In vocal art it is difficult to determine the exact type of the human voice (tenor, baritone, bass or soprano, mezzosoprano, alto(Tab.1)). Up to now it has been considered that the type of the human voice should be determined by vocal teacher and the phoniatrician(1,2,5).

ine the type of a human voice in the beginning of singers career.

Has been used the XIMATRON CX simulator equipped with image digital convertor to DIKOM(Fig.1.).

T
Fig.1.XIMATRON CX simulator
he picture of the larynx, the trachea and the big bronchial tubes is trans­mit­ted to the mo­nitor of the com­puter. The doc­tor has only to mark the borders of these ana­to­mical struc­tu­res, by using the mouse of the computer(Fig.2.,Fig.3.), and the computer has special programs, by which calculations are carried out. Procedure takes approximately 5 minutes. Borders of anatomical structures in our research were approved by consilium, which consisted of 3 radiologists, 2 otorhinolaryngologists and 1 medical physicist.

Tenors rtg.

Bass rtg.


Fig.2. Tenors rtg

Fig.3.Bass rtg

D

uring the research 15 vocalists – professional opera singers – all of them are soloists of Latvian National Opera – 5 tenors,
5 baritones, 5 basses were investigated. Singers willingly agreed to participate in this research, because a part of them at the beginning of their career also had problems with determination of the type of voice.
RESULTS

The results of the investigation show that there is a connection between the type of the human voice and the volume of the larynx, the trachea, and the big bronchial tubes. The difference in the volume of larynx of these voices groups varies on average – tenor – 1,87cm³, baritone – 5,32 cm³, bass – 11,35 cm³(Fig.5.)and the difference in volume of larynx, the trachea and the big bronchial tubes together varies on average – tenor – 136,6 cm³, baritone – 157,0 cm³, bass 196,3 cm³(Tab.2.).