Voice examined in lecture and song

Ingo Titze

Titze, who has studied such topics as biomechanics of human tissues, voice disorders, professional voice production, musical acoustics, and the computer simulation of voice, will share his enthusiasm, knowledge, and even a few songs when he presents the University’s 2001 Presidential Lecture, "Fascinations with the human voice," at 3:30 p.m., Feb. 18, in the Levitt Center for University Advancement.

The free lecture, which opens with two Mozart tenor-baritone duets sung by Titze and John Muriello, assistant professor of voice in the School of Music, will focus on five "fascinations."

"The first fascination I’ll discuss is how it’s possible that such great sounds can come from basically a fairly lousy instrument," said Titze, who directs the National Center for Voice and Speech, a consortium of investigators at the University of Iowa, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and the University of Utah.

"If you look at the way the human vocal folds and vocal tract are structured, compared to what we see in high-quality manmade instruments that are constructed to make beautiful sounds, you’d think this critter has no chance," he said. "Yet with a wonderful brain attached, we’re able to compensate for and make use of these irregularities and not-so-nice properties of the tissues."

Titze will use visuals to help illustrate dimensional differences between certain musical instruments and the voice.

The other four fascinations he will describe include: what our voice tells others about us—from mood to health to social upbringing; how well the voice and the ear work together acoustically; how powerful the voice can be in terms of revealing emotions or protecting ourselves or others from danger; and how easy it is to use a computer to simulate the vocal bravado we hear in voices like opera great Luciano Pavarotti, yet how difficult it is to use a computer to reproduce simple ordinary speech.

Pavarobotti, the singing robot designed by Titze that uses sophisticated computer simulation of the human voice, will not be "performing" at the lecture. However, Titze will provide related sound recordings and video.

Titze hopes people will come away from his lecture not only with an increased understanding of the human voice but also with a greater awareness of the need to be more health conscious about preserving their voices.

"We hear so much about protecting our ears and hearing, but so little has been said about protecting our voice-production organs," Titze said. He also will tell people about outreach programs at the National Center for Voice and Speech.

Article by Becky Soglin