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Current study investigates the voice of high-performance singers / Publication in PLOS ONE

Voice research has now been conducted at the Freiburg Institute for Musicians' Medicine (FIM) for 10 years. The Institute is a joint institution of the Faculty of Medicine - University of Freiburg, the Medical Center - University of Freiburg and the Freiburg University of Music, which is celebrating its 70th anniversary today. The FIM is headed by Prof. Dr. Claudia Spahn and Prof. Dr. Bernhard Richter. Together with Prof. Richter, Prof. Dr. Matthias Echternach, senior physician at the Institute for Musicians' Medicine, has set himself the goal of scientifically clarifying the question of how the voice develops in high-performance singers.

The studies, which are funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), have now analyzed almost 50 singers, including many who regularly perform at leading international opera houses such as La Scala in Milan, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Bayreuth Festival and the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin.

The studies were primarily carried out using dynamic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). For the implementation and optimization of the imaging, there is close cooperation with the Department of Medical Physics at the Department of Radiology at the Medical Center - University of Freiburg (Head Prof. Dr. Jürgen Hennig) and the Department of Neuroradiology at the Medical Center - University of Freiburg (Prof. Dr. Horst Urbach).

"The fact that magnetic resonance imaging does not involve X-rays means that the examinations are safe for the test subjects according to the current state of science. The insight that the singers give us is unique and allows us to better understand the most important means of human communication, namely the voice," explains Prof. Echternach.

In an interview conducted by the Münchner Merkur with the world-famous baritone Michael Volle, who also took part in the studies, the singer commented: "First of all, you're totally amazed. I had absolutely no idea... Many subtleties and details about the entire head and neck area were completely new to me." The attached video of such an MR recording(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpCF-05VEKk) already had over 200,000 views on YouTube in just four days after its release.

In addition to voice research, the working group led by Freiburg musicologists Spahn, Richter, Pöppe and Echternach has produced an educational DVD in which this technology was also used to understand the physiological processes of wind instrumentalists(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Xo63XrllxQ). In addition to the analyses using MRI, the working group also examines vocal fold vibrations with high-speed recordings of 20,000 images per second. This made it possible for the first time to analyze even very high human vocal pitches, such as in the Queen of the Night from Mozart's Magic Flute.

In the meantime, Echternach and Richter's team has already published over 50 papers on the voice in peer review journals, mostly in English. Most recently, a freely accessible publication appeared in the scientific journal PLOS ONE(http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0153792), in which the loudness of high performance singers is examined.

Original title of the study: Morphometric Differences of Vocal Tract Articulators in Different Loudness Conditions in Singing
Link to the study: http: //dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0153792

Homepage: www.uniklinik-freiburg.de/musikermedizin

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Matthias Echternach
Senior Physician
Institute for Musicians' Medicine
Medical Center - University of Freiburg
Phone: 0761 270-61610
matthias.echternach@uniklinik-freiburg.de