The purpose of this study was to compare the speaking fundamental frequency, physiological vocal range, singing voice quality, and self-perceptions of the singing and speaking voice between two groups of girls ages 11 through 15 years, who were pre-menarcheal by 6 months and post-menarcheal by 10 months or more. Subjects were volunteers who attended a North Texas public school system. Each subject was examined by an otolaryngologist. Age, height, weight, a hearing screening, and information on music classes and/or private music lessons were obtained. The speaking fundamental frequency measure was obtained by having each subject speak for 30 seconds on a subject of choice and read a passage of approximately 100 syllables. The vocal range measure was obtained by having each subject begin at an arbitrary pitch and sing mah and moo up the scale as high as possible and mah and moo down the scale as low as possible. These four measures were repeated with the researcher giving visual gestures. For singing-voice quality, each subject sang "America" in the key of her choice and again in the key of F major. Each subjects singing voice was rated according to breathiness. Data regarding self-perceptions of the singing and speaking voice were obtained through a rating assessment of 10 questions and a conversation with each subject. There were no significant differences between the means of the pre-meanarcheal and post-menarcheal girls on speaking fundamental frequency, physiological vocal range, and singing-voice quality. But, more of the post-menarcheal girls exhibited lower speaking pitches, lower singing ranges, and increased breathiness in their singing voices than did the pre-menarcheal girls. Two questions of the perceptions rating assessment were significant, with the post-menarcheal girls citing higher incidences of vocal inconsistencies than the pre-menarcheal girls. The findings of the qualitative data analysis indicated that more post-menarcheal girls had an adequate vocabulary to describe various aspects of their singing and speaking voices than did the pre-menarcheal girls.

With ageing, human voices undergo several changes which are typically characterised by increased hoarseness, breathiness, changes in articulatory patterns and slower speaking rate. The focus of this thesis is to understand the impact of ageing on Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) performance and improve the ASR accuracies for older voices. Baseline results on three corpora indicate that the word error rates (WER) for older adults are significantly higher than those of younger adults and the decrease in accuracies is higher for males speakers as compared to females. Acoustic parameters such as jitter and shimmer that measure glottal source disfluencies were found to be significantly higher for older adults. However, the hypothesis that these changes explain the differences in WER for the two age groups is proven incorrect. Experiments with artificial introduction of glottal source disfluencies in speech from younger adults do not display a significant impact on WERs. Changes in fundamental frequency observed quite often in older voices has a marginal impact on ASR accuracies. Analysis of phoneme errors between younger and older speakers shows a pattern of certain phonemes especially lower vowels getting more affected with ageing. These changes however are seen to vary across speakers. Another factor that is strongly associated with ageing voices is a decrease in the rate of speech. Experiments to analyse the impact of slower speaking rate on ASR accuracies indicate that the insertion errors increase while decoding slower speech with models trained on relatively faster speech. We then propose a way to characterise speakers in acoustic space based on speaker adaptation transforms and observe that speakers (especially males) can be segregated with reasonable accuracies based on age. Inspired by this, we look at supervised hierarchical acoustic models based on gender and age. Significant improvements in word accuracies are achieved over the baseline results with such models. The idea is then extended to construct unsupervised hierarchical models which also outperform the baseline models by a good margin. Finally, we hypothesize that the ASR accuracies can be improved by augmenting the adaptation data with speech from acoustically closest speakers. A strategy to select the augmentation speakers is proposed. Experimental results on two corpora indicate that the hypothesis holds true only when the amount of available adaptation is limited to a few seconds. The efficacy of such a speaker selection strategy is analysed for both younger and older adults.

Este trabalho apresenta a análise do salmo 137. Apontamos quais são os sujeitos falantes neste salmo identificando, então, uma multiplicidade de vozes. Comentaristas e exegetas bíblicos analisam estas vozes sob diferentes perspectivas. Propomos apresentar um paralelo destas interpretações , assim como também analisar o modo como tais vozes estão organizadas no salmo de forma que, mesmo com múltiplos falantes, o poema convirja para um único ponto de vista, formando a unicidade do salmo: o lamento pelo exílio e as possíveis réplicas para a crise instaurada. / This paper presents the analysis of Psalm 137. Pointed out which are the subject identifying speakers in this psalm, then a multiplicity of voices. Biblical exegetes and commentators analyze these voices from different perspectives. We propose a parallel display of these interpretations, as well as examine how these voices are arranged so that in the psalm, even with multiple speakers, the poem converge to a single point of view, forming the unity of the psalm: the lament for the exile and possible replies to the crisis brought.

by Lo Hau Man. / Thesis (M.Mus.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Chapter 1 --- Programme notes of Requiem --- p.1-1 / Text of Requiem --- p.1-3 / Programme notes of Dream --- p.1-7 / Chapter 2 --- Requiem --- p.2-i / Instrumentation --- p.2-ii / Note and Directions --- p.2-iii / Chapter (I) --- Requiem Aeternam --- p.2-1 / Chapter (II) --- Dies Irae 2- --- p.24 / Chapter (III) --- Offertorio --- p.2-108 / Chapter (IV) --- Sanctus --- p.2-122 / Chapter (V) --- Agnus Dei --- p.2-137 / Chapter (VI) --- Libera Me --- p.2-147 / Chapter 3 --- Dream - Ballet Suite --- p.3-i / "Instrumentation, Note & Direction" --- p.3-ii / Chapter (I) --- Allemande --- p.3-1 / Chapter (II) --- Air --- p.3-6 / Chapter (III) --- Gigue --- p.3-11

Voice hearing (or auditory verbal hallucinations) is a commonly reported experience across a range of psychiatric diagnoses, and is often associated with high levels of distress and disruption to everyday functioning. Many people troubled by voices see little benefit from antipsychotic medication, prompting attempts to understand and target psychological mechanisms underlying both the emergence of voices and associated distress. Research to date has typically adopted a cross-sectional approach, identifying factors associated with the tendency to hear distressing voices. However, less is known about the ‘proximal' mechanisms associated with fluctuations in voices and distress during the daily lives of voice hearers. Psychological therapies for distressing voices have demonstrated limited success in reducing voice-related distress, and it is suggested that a better understanding of the proximal mechanisms underlying voices may facilitate advancements in these interventions. The studies within this thesis utilise the Experience Sampling Method (ESM), an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) approach that allows the intensive, ‘micro-longitudinal' sampling of voice hearing experiences in the natural contexts in which they are experienced. First, ESM is used to investigate the antecedent and modulating roles of stress and dissociative experiences in voice hearing (N=31). Next, the role of behavioural responses and voice appraisals in the maintenance of voice-related distress during daily life are explored (N=31). Then, a data-based illustration of the potential of ESM for delineating key psychological mechanisms underlying gains in psychological interventions for distressing voices is provided (N=2). Finally, factors associated with stress-induced depersonalisation as a proximal mechanism for voice hearing are explored (N=29). Current findings support the role of depersonalisation as a mediator in the observed relationship between daily life stress and increases in voice intensity. Findings additionally support a role for negative voice appraisals in the experience of momentary voice distress, and a role of behavioural responses in maintaining both distress and voice appraisals over time. Preliminary evidence was obtained for a range of processes involving changes in voice appraisals and emotional reactivity potentially underlying therapeutic gains during cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis. These findings encourage a greater focus of interventions on targeting mechanisms associated with daily life voice hearing and associated distress, including stress-induced depersonalisation, negative voice appraisals, and maladaptive behavioural responses to voices. They also suggest a parallel use for ESM as a means of enhancing treatment efficacy within the context of psychological interventions.

Este trabalho pretende analisar cuidadosamente os mecanismos empregados por James Joyce para a representação das vozes e do convívio das várias instâncias e individualidades vocais em seu romance Ulysses. Para isso ele realiza uma minuciosa leitura (a todo momento partindo de exemplos concretos) de cada um dos dezoito episódios do romance, buscando primeiro estabelecer uma base, uma técnica primeira, a partir da qual será comentado o desenvolvimento de novas técnicas e novos efeitos, episódio a episódio. Para esta leitura, será central a idéia de arranjo, conforme definida por David Hayman. Num segundo momento, as formulações estabelecidas a partir da letra do texto joyceano serão confrontadas com o que os estudos do círculo de filósofos da linguagem cuja figura central é Mikhail Bakhtin puderam dizer a respeito das mesmas questões. Como parte de seu desenvolvimento e também como parte de seu resultado, o trabalho apresenta ainda uma nova tradução do Ulysses para o português / This work deals with the mechanics of the representation of voices and the representation of their co-existence (both as individual voices and as representatives of different levels of the narrative structure) in the novel Ulysses, by James Joyce. The first objective has been the detailed reading and analysis (always grounding the commentary on concrete examples) of each of the eighteen episodes of the novel, trying in a first moment to establish the notion of a basic technique, to which new procedures and new effects will be added as the novel progresses. In this reading, the ideas of David Hayman (best represented in his creation of the arranger) have been of the utmost importance. After that, all that has been extracted from Joyce\'s text has been compared to the writings of that circle of Russian scholars defined by the central presence of Mikhail Bakhtin, trying to refine from them all that may deal with the same questions. Both as part of its development and as part of its final product, this thesis presents also a new Brazilian translation of Ulysses

Este trabalho pretende analisar cuidadosamente os mecanismos empregados por James Joyce para a representação das vozes e do convívio das várias instâncias e individualidades vocais em seu romance Ulysses. Para isso ele realiza uma minuciosa leitura (a todo momento partindo de exemplos concretos) de cada um dos dezoito episódios do romance, buscando primeiro estabelecer uma base, uma técnica primeira, a partir da qual será comentado o desenvolvimento de novas técnicas e novos efeitos, episódio a episódio. Para esta leitura, será central a idéia de arranjo, conforme definida por David Hayman. Num segundo momento, as formulações estabelecidas a partir da letra do texto joyceano serão confrontadas com o que os estudos do círculo de filósofos da linguagem cuja figura central é Mikhail Bakhtin puderam dizer a respeito das mesmas questões. Como parte de seu desenvolvimento e também como parte de seu resultado, o trabalho apresenta ainda uma nova tradução do Ulysses para o português / This work deals with the mechanics of the representation of voices and the representation of their co-existence (both as individual voices and as representatives of different levels of the narrative structure) in the novel Ulysses, by James Joyce. The first objective has been the detailed reading and analysis (always grounding the commentary on concrete examples) of each of the eighteen episodes of the novel, trying in a first moment to establish the notion of a basic technique, to which new procedures and new effects will be added as the novel progresses. In this reading, the ideas of David Hayman (best represented in his creation of the arranger) have been of the utmost importance. After that, all that has been extracted from Joyce\'s text has been compared to the writings of that circle of Russian scholars defined by the central presence of Mikhail Bakhtin, trying to refine from them all that may deal with the same questions. Both as part of its development and as part of its final product, this thesis presents also a new Brazilian translation of Ulysses

abstract: Lux Aeterna is scored for Flute (Piccolo), Bb Clarinet (Bass Clarinet), Oboe, Bassoon (Contra-Bassoon), French Horn, Trumpet in C, Tenor Trombone, Soprano Voice, Alto Voice, Tenor Voice, Bass Voice, 2 Violins, Viola, Cello and Double Bass. The piece lasts 17-18 minutes. The text, in its original Latin, is from the Requiem Mass. The pitch material for the four voices is directly derived from the original Gregorian Chant (B, C#, D, E, F#, G, A). The primary pitch materials for the instrumental ensemble are drawn from the overtone series, with the fundamental of B natural. As found in the natural overtone series, the chords produced in this composition include microtones found both naturally from the series along with microtones added by the composer to create harmonic friction. This treatment of microtonal materials is juxtaposed with the “pure” nature of the B minor modal scale sung by the 4 vocalists. Lux Aeterna uses the performance space so that the sixteen performers and conductor surround the audience in an oval shape. Entrances of instruments are determined by their position around the audience and the way in which those sounds interact with one another across the space of the hall. The instruments are strategically placed so that timbres can be balanced in a specific way and the listener can hear the pitches blend in the acoustics of the hall. The goal is to create an immersive listening experience for the audience. Although there are some spectral techniques involved in this composition, no computers or software programs were used to analyze harmonic materials. The pitch material is either from the overtone series or the B minor scale. Essentially, the music is instinctually composed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Music 2019

Thesis (D.A.)--Ball State University, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Nov. 12, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. [224]-229) and indexes.

Thesis (D.M.A.)--Univeristy of Oklahoma, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references.