Quantitative Analysis of Tessitura and Density in Franz Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin
Description
Quantitative analysis of vocal compositions continues to be a topic of exploration in seeking methods that objectively match a singer’s ability with musical difficulty. Work is needed to study the vocal demands of song cycles of Western classical art songs. The objective of this study is to assess the compositional range, musical tessitura, melodic directionality, vocal fold cycle dose, phonation time dose, and accompaniment density of the 20 art songs comprising Die schöne Müllerin by Franz Schubert.
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Vocal and piano pitches in each song were subdivided by the shortest universal rhythmic duration and converted to hertz for equal weighting. Accompaniment density was determined by similarly subdividing each pitch in the piano part. Quartile analysis defined tessitura as the inclusive range between the first and third quartiles based on previous analysis models. The frequency difference between each pitch and summing time spent ascending, descending, or remaining stable in pitch determined vocal directionality.