Quantitative analysis of the intelligibility of Portuguese sung in Brazilian chamber music: the perspective of lyrical singers based on an online questionnaire

ABSTRACT:

The studies on the intelligibility of sung text involve singing across all musical genres. Aimed at identifying the causes of the lack of comprehension of the text in Brazilian chamber songs, we had the participation of 110 lyrical singers who responded to a semi-structured online questionnaire containing both objective and descriptive questions. The factors that impact intelligibility most frequently cited by the singers were: high pitch, imprecise diction, retracted vocal placement and excessive vibrato. Another important piece of data from the study reveals that 70% of respondents identified sopranos as the singers with the greatest loss of comprehension when singing in vernacular.

KEYWORDS:
Brazilian chamber song; Text intelligibility; Classical singing