The purposes of this study were to describe the characteristics of the changing male voice in 4th, 5th and 6th grade students using Cooksey's maturation stages and, to compare the age-of-onset of the male voice change in African American, White, and Hispanic male students. Participants included volunteer 4th (n = 61), 5th (n = 73), and 6th grade male students (n = 63) from 2 urban elementary schools, 5 suburban elementary schools, 1 suburban middle school and 1 urban middle school in the North Texas region. The three ethnic groups represented in this study were: African American (n = 62), White (n = 58), and Hispanic (n = 77). Results indicated that approximately 46% of 4th grade participants, 62% of 5th grade participants, and 67% of 6th grade participants were classified as changing voices. A descriptively larger percentage of African American participants were classified as changing voices than Hispanic and White participants. Also, a larger percentage of African American and Hispanic participants were descriptively classified in the more advanced stages of the voice change than White participants. Urban African American, White, and Hispanic participants had a larger percentage of males classified as changing voices than suburban African American, White, and Hispanic participants. Results of a one-way, between subjects ANOVA revealed no significant main effect for ethnicity, F (2, 51) = .42, p = .66, η2 = .02. The overall mean age-of-onset for participants in this study was approximately 11.20 years of age.

My work revolves around Alexander Yakovlev’s vocal method which originates in the tradition of organic singing established in Russia by Glinka in the mid nineteenth century, and developed by the legendary Russian bass Fyodor Chalyapin. My approach to piano technique and performance formed as a direct result of Yakovlev’s principles and his vocal method, serves as the origin in my search for piano mastery. Being taught organic singing simultaneously with my piano studies by Yakovlev’s successor Natalia Pirozerskaya in my early childhood, I did not at that point see the full benefit of this approach for my piano skills. It was only after twelve years of trial and error in seeking to realise my inner expressive and virtuoso potential at the piano, that I understood the infinite value of Pirozerskaya’s teaching method and began to analyse the effect of organic singing on my pianistic process. Pirozerskaya grounds her research on the singing voice following Yakovlev’s concept of the vocal apparatus functioning as a sensory organ in relation to musical performance. Yakovlev developed a theory around this phenomenon which he labelled funzione d’attacco. This way, the singer’s inner artistic impulses cause a direct, natural motor response in his/her vocal organ, forming optimal corresponding movements which with training become automatic, almost reflexive. Pirozerskaya believes that because the vocal organ is an embodied instrument positioned close to the brain, organic vocal movements easily stimulate the brain, serving to alert and coordinate the motor-muscular responses of the entire body, and thus helping to form differentiated musical movements of the hands – the apparatus of the pianist. My research is focused on these phenomena in relation to piano playing. I am working towards systematising Pirozerskaya’s and my own further discoveries on how this unique vocalpiano method impacts on piano technique. Aiming to distinguish between the notions of a ‘good piano player’ and a ‘performing artist’, I am developing my proposed piano method of re-connecting the pianist with his inner artistic self. Combining my experience with relevant ideas of several renowned piano pedagogues from Frederick Chopin to the present, I propose an approach to piano playing which, I believe, has the capacity of maximising artistic expression in performance through developing a natural functional balance of pianistic movements inseparable from the pianist’s artistic aims

The English voice system has two passive auxiliaries: the canonical be-passive, and the more recent get-passive. Accounts of the get-passive in the linguistic literature draw from descriptive, historical, corpus linguistic, and variationist perspectives. Much existing work on the get-passive from the former three traditions notes semantic dissimilarities from the be-passive, suggesting that these two forms are not interchangeable and therefore do not constitute a typical sociolinguistic variable. Nonetheless, variationist work has treated the be- and get-passives as alternants expressing the same function. This latter work has focused on social factors alone, setting aside purported linguistic differences. This thesis provides a variationist account of the be- and get-passives, considering not only social factors, but also operationalizing as linguistic factors previously noted semantic characteristics, demonstrating which factors constrain variation and providing a holistic picture of the get-passive in vernacular English. The speakers in this study span a birth range of 1865 to 1996, providing a longitudinal scope from which to view the grammaticalization of the feature. Following the principle of accountability (Labov, 1972), instances of be- and get-passives were extracted from 108 speakers born and raised in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada (N=1716). Distributional and inferential results show a substantial increase in rates of get-passive over the last 130 years, indicating an active and ongoing change in progress. Social and linguistic factors alike are shown to play meaningful roles in variant selection, revealing a (largely) longitudinally stable variable grammar. The longitudinal scope of the study illuminates grammaticalization pathways into the 20th century and reinforces attested semantic links between the contemporary get-passive and its proposed lexical source(s). / Graduate / 2023-08-17

Today voice recognition is becoming mainstream and nowadays it is also possible to include in individual smartphone apps. However, it has not previously been investigated for which tasks it is preferable from a usability perspective to use voice recognition rather than touch. In order to investigate this, a voice user interface was created for a smartphone radio application, which already had a touch interface. The voice user interface was also tested with users in order to improve its usability. After that, a test was conducted where the participants were asked to perform the same tasks using both the touch and voice interface. The time they took to complete the tasks was measured and the participants rated the experience of completing the task on a scale. Finally, they were asked which interaction method they preferred. For most of the tasks tested, the voice interaction was both faster and got a higher rating. However, it should be noted that in a case where users don’t have specific tasks to perform it might be harder for them to know what a voice controlled app can and cannot do than when they are using touch. Many users also expressed that they were reluctant to use voice commands in public spaces out of fear of appearing strange. These results can be applied to other radio/podcast apps and, to a lesser extent, app for watching TV series and playing music. / Röststyrningen blir vanligare och numera är den också möjligt att använda i individuella appar för smartphones. Det har dock inte tidigare undersökts för vilka uppgifter det ur ett användbarhetsperspektiv är att föredra framför pekskärmsinteraktion. För att undersöka det skapades ett röstinterface för en radiooch podcast applikation som redan hade ett pekskärmsinterface. Röstinterfacet testades också med användare för att förbättra dess användbarhet. Efter det gjordes ett test där deltagarna blev ombedda att utföra samma uppgift med både pekskärm- och röstinterface. Den tid de tog på sig uppmättes och deltagarna betygsatte upplevelsen av att utföra uppgiften på en skala. Slutligen blev de tillfrågade omvilken interaktionsmetod de föredrog. För de flesta av de testade uppgifterna var röstinteraktion snabbare och fick högre betyg. Det ska dock noteras att i fall då användaren inte har specifika uppgifter att utföra kan det vara svårare för dem att veta vad en röststyrd app kan och inte kan göra än när de använder pekskärm. Många användare uttryckte också att de var motvilliga till att använda röstkommandon i allmänna utrymmen av rädsla föratt verka underliga. Dessa resultat kan tillämpas på radio/podcast appar och, i mindre utsträckning, appar för att titta på TV-serier och spela musik.

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Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University.

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A theory of the evolution of low voice pitch in men suggests that (a) voice pitch is used as an indicator of success in mate competition; (b) pitch is used as an indicator of dominance more for men’s voices than women’s; (c) pitch affects dominance ratings more than attractiveness ratings. While early studies supported these ideas, several subsequent studies have failed to replicate these results with mainly male raters, because of the idea that men’s perceptions affect selection more than women’s do. We tested the extent to which these findings apply to women’s perceptions of the aforementioned characteristics, as well as to other characteristics related to voice pitch and dominance: perceived body size, competitiveness, cooperativeness, socio-economic status, and attractiveness. We manipulated pitch in men’s and women’s voices and tested women’s perceptions thereof. Women chose low voices as belonging to a speaker that is more physically/socially dominant, less cooperative, larger, higher in socio-economic status, and (for men’s voices) more attractive. In contrast to hypotheses of theories on the evolution of low voice pitch in men, pitch had no effect on perceptions of competitiveness, nor did it affect either physical or social dominance ratings more than it affected attractiveness ratings. Surprisingly, pitch affected dominance perceptions of women’s voices more than men’s. Thus, despite previous evidence that some men modify their voices in competitive scenarios, our data are unable to support the idea that this information is used by women to infer dominance related to competitiveness. We contribute to the growing literature that finds no difference in the amount that voice pitch affects dominance and attractiveness ratings or fails to find stronger effects for male than female voices. Our data are consistent with theories that dominance ratings are the result of a general response bias to stimuli varying in pitch. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Low voice pitch is associated with perceptions of dominance, size, attractiveness, higher socio-economic status, and low cooperativeness. Since men lower their voice pitch in competitive scenarios, we predicted low pitch would be tied to perceptions of competitiveness of the speaker. We manipulated pitch in men’s and women’s voices, and female participants chose which voice they thought belonged to the person who was more physically/socially dominant, competitive, cooperative, larger, higher in socio-economic status, and more attractive. Women chose low voices as being more physically/socially dominant, less cooperative, larger, higher in socio-economic status, and (for male voices only) more attractive than higher voices. Pitch had no effect on perceptions of competitiveness, it did not affect perceptions of dominance for male speakers more than female speakers, neither did it affect perceptions of dominance more than attractiveness. This challenges the idea that low pitch in men evolved to primarily signal success in intrasexual competition.

The German word Zwischenfach often refers to opera roles and singers whose voices lie between the categories of mezzo-soprano and soprano. While the term is not universally accepted as a voice category, Zwischenfach voices and roles are being discussed more openly and with more specificity in collegiate and professional circles. This document includes a discussion on the challenges of categorizing dramatic voices, mezzo-soprano voices, and those who could be considered Zwischenfach, taking into consideration the inherent ambiguity and flexibility within these voice categories. The elements that have led to developmental changes in opera voices and their categories over the centuries provide insight and context on how Zwischenfach has become a term that describes the ambiguity and challenge of classifying opera voices in the twenty-first century. A main focus of this document is a discussion of eleven pieces from twenty-first century American operas which a Zwischenfach singer could consider for auditions and performances. Operas included are: Dead Man Walking by Jake Heggie, The Grapes of Wrath by Ricky Ian Gordon, After Life and Glory Denied by Tom Cipullo, Lysistrata by Mark Adamo, Dinner at Eight by William Bolcom, and Fantastic Mr. Fox by Tobias Picker. My hope is that this document will give Zwischenfach voices a resource when choosing twenty-first century repertoire and promote further discussion and acceptance of the Zwischenfach voice category.

This thesis reports on the use of active and passive voice in the workplace and classroom through analysis of surveys completed by 37 employees and 66 students. The surveys offered six categories of business writing with ten sets of two sentences each, written in active and passive voice. Participants selected one sentence from each set and gave a reason for each selection. The participants preferred active over passive 47 to 46 percent of opportunities, but they preferred mixed voice over both, 49 percent. The participants preferred active only for memos to supervisors; in the other five categories they preferred passive or mixed voice. Both males and females preferred mixed voice, and age appeared to influence the choices. They cited context as the most common reason for using passive.