Transformations of musical scales in traditional unaccompanied singing

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Daina; Tautosaka; Intervalas; Liaudies dainos; Muzikinės skalės; Muzikos skalės; Tonalumas; Tradicinis dainavimas; Transformacijos; Vokalinis altikimas; Folk song; Folklore; Interval; Musical scales; Song; Tonality; Traditional singing; Transformations; Vocal performance.

ENBecause of an absence of a fixed referential tonality, musical scales can experience certain gradual changes in the course of a capella vocal performance. For example, the phenomenon of floating tonality or gradual transposition (usually a gradual rise of pitch up to several semitones) common in traditional, unaccompanied singing has been discussed (Niemi & Jouste, Greene, Ambrazevičius). Alexeyev studied some peculiar instances of so-called "evolving" scales in Yakut singing, i.e. the intervals between adjacent scale degrees tend to widen in the course of performance. In the present study, we aim to identify types of gradual changes of musical scales in traditional singing without accompaniment and to discuss possible causes for the changes. Praat-aided acoustical measurements of pitches in traditional unaccompanied vocal performances were carried out. The sample was composed of 20 song records exemplifying the Lithuanian vocal tradition, both monophony and homophony. Several phenomena were revealed. First, the gradual transposition (rise) from the beginning to the end of the song performances can be identified as typical case. Second, the phenomenon of "evolving" scales was found to range from negligible to striking, for different vocal performances. Third, sometimes an opposite phenomenon of gradual shrinking of the musical scales, i.e. microtonal narrowing of intervals, takes place. The rise and widening might be attributed to warming-up, timbral brightening, and mastering of range, whereas the gradual shrinking manifests as the upper scale degrees reach gradually the upper part of a vocal range not comfortable for voice production. [From the publication]