Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the vocal health, hygiene, and use of university professors teaching at-risk populations. The self-reported habits of professors of education, business, social work, and psychology were compared to the self-reported habits of professors of communication sciences and disorders (CSD) to determine if there was any difference between these two groups for whom risk factors are comparable but knowledge of those factors significantly differs. Method: A survey comprising 40 questions regarding vocal health, hygiene, and use, was sent to a total of 3018 professors at 61 different universities. A total of 80 professors from CSD and 162 professors from other departments responded to the survey. Results: Responses were analyzed for statistically significant differences using multiple independent-sample T-tests. Analyses included comparing: 1) all respondents from both groups, 2) those respondents who reported the most hours lectured from both groups, 3) those respondents who reported having the largest class sizes from both groups, and 4) those respondents who reported the least hours lectured from both groups. While statistical analyses demonstrated some significant differences between each subgroup, few differences were observed between professors of CSD and professors of other departments. Conclusion: The paucity of statistically significant differences between any of the subgroups suggests that professors of CSD are neither more aware of their vocal health nor more likely to engage in more beneficial vocal practices. Education about vocal health and pathology alone is not enough to increase the use of beneficial vocal habits for this at-risk population. / text

The object of this study was to compile a list of solo literature for beginning college voice students and analyze these solos for pedagogical and performance purposes. There is no lack of printed material on the subjects of singing and voice culture. But it is not readily accessible to teachers since it is extremely diversified and rather diffusely distributed throughout a variety of sources, such as books, periodicals, and scientific papers. Several lists and books containing songs for beginners have been compiled.

The study introduces the Cornelius Reid Archive and provides biographical and functional context for Reid’s teaching method, which he referred to as functional voice training. Biography, summary of Reid’s ideas on environmental control and vocal registration, together with descriptions taken from Reid’s own writings of the function and purpose of various exercises transcribed from the Archive, constitute the primary chapters. Appendices include complete transcription of ca. 170 exercises and several illustrations of Dr. Douglas Stanley’s overt teaching methods.

The neural mechanisms underlying vocal motor control are poorly understood in mammalian systems. Particularly lacking are details pertaining to the mechanisms and neuroanatomical basis of sensory-motor integration and vocal plasticity, both of which are thought to be essential for evolutionarily advanced vocal behaviors like birdsong or human speech. Based on clinical evidence and imaging studies in humans, as well as its known significance for motor control in general, the basal ganglia (BG) have been hypothesized as a key site for audio-vocal integration, but direct evidence of this is lacking. In this dissertation, I will fill this gap by providing experimental evidence that the basal ganglia are an important component of the forebrain vocal motor pathway. First, I present two examples of vocal plasticity in Tadarida brasiliensis that can serve as powerful behavioral assays of audio-vocal integration. Secondly I provide evidence of BG functions in audio-vocal integration by knocking down striatal dopamine levels with the neurotoxin 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6 tetrahydropyrridine (MPTP). Finally, I will utilize the D1-type receptor specific agonist SKF82958 and antagonist SCH23390 to examine how the direct pathway of the BG regulates vocal production and sensorymotor integration. The behavioral results of these experiments indicate that the bats have a complex and context depended vocal response to noise stimuli that can be used to examine the neurological control of vocal plasticity. Further, the pharmacological evidence demonstrated that the BG was necessary for maintaining and modulating normal muscle force during vocal production. Finally, the mechanism of action in the basal ganglia was found to depend at least partly on activity at D1-type dopamine receptors. The results of this dissertation support the hypothesis that the BG is a critical structure in the modulation of vocal commands in the forebrain vocal-motor pathway. Pathological or pharmacological disruption of dopamine signaling severely degraded the bats abilities to produce natural sounding calls or make adaptive changes to the acoustic environment. These results have implications for research into the treatment of basal ganglia disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, providing an animal model for the study of hypokinetic dysarthria.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Iowa, 2008. / Thesis supervisor: Eileen M. Finnegan. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 130-133).

Thesis (doctoral)--Technische Universität, Dresden, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 305-323) and index.

No description available.

This study is based on the premise that modern day performances of late Renaissance sacred music are informed more by biases and assumptions concerning performance practice rather than on information gleaned from the primary sources. The result is homogeneity in performance practice within this body of literature which is in direct contradiction to the primary sources. Four controversial areas of performance practice, vibrato, text expression techniques, ornamentation and doubling instrumentation, are investigated in this document in the context of four motets by Luca Marenzio (1553-1599). Findings from primary sources contemporary to Marenzio's time that relate to these four performance practice areas are closely examined and reinterpreted, and suggestions are given for historically informed application of these findings to contemporary choral performance settings. This examination of primary sources indicates that each of Marenzio's motets constitutes its own "soundscape" with a unique set of attendant performance practices, which has great implications for performances of late Renaissance sacred music as a whole.

No description available.

Operant conditioning techniques were used to establish imitation in the manner outlined by Baer. Countercontrol was assessed in motor and vocal imitation across four motivational levels. Three levels of food deprivation, i.e., three hour, fourteen hour, and twenty-one hour, plus a final response contingent shock level, composed the parameters.