Incroyable mais vrai!!! La science du son (du bruit comme l'

The Human Instrument



The human vocal system would not receive much acclaim if instrument
makers placed it in a lineup of traditional orchestral instruments.
Arranged by size, for example, the voice box (larynx)—and the airway it
sits in—would be grouped with the piccolo, among the smallest of
mechanical music makers. And yet experienced singers compete well with
all man-made instruments, one on one and even paired with full
orchestras. Recent investigations of how our singing voice generates a
remarkable range of sounds have revealed surprising complexity in the
behavior of the vocal system’s elements and in the ways they interact.

For more than half a century, scientists
explained the voice’s ability to create song by invoking a so-called
linear theory of speech acoustics, whereby the source of sound and the
resonator of sound (or amplifier) work independently. Researchers have
now learned, however, that nonlinear interactions—those in which source
and resonator feed off each other—play an unexpectedly crucial role in
generating human sound. Such insights now make it possible to describe
how great singers produce those amazing sounds. [more]