[Acoustic analysis and characteristics of vocal range in Beijing Opera actors].
OBJECTIVE
To get the objective acoustic parameters of the voice of Beijing Opera actors and set a foundation for the training and protection of the special professional voice.


METHODS
Seventy-three (age 16-57 years) professional actors and students were asked to produce sustained comfortable vowels /a/ and /i/, and to sing two pieces of songs which were in the category of Xipi and Erhuang respectively. Dr. Speech for windows version 3.0 was used to get the acoustic parameters of the vowels and the songs.


RESULTS
F0 of the vowels /a/ and /i/ of different Hangdangs were Chou (272.6 +/- 42.0) Hz (mean +/- s), (304.2 +/- 22.1) Hz; Xiaosheng (499.3 +/- 34.0) Hz, (485.4 +/- 18.7) Hz; Laosheng (335.6 +/- 60.0) Hz, (317.9 +/- 45.1) Hz; Hualian (319.0 +/- 61.3) Hz, (340.1 +/- 68.8) Hz; Laodan (427.6 +/- 47.2) Hz, (437.7 +/- 45.8) Hz; Huadan (535.8 +/- 48.8) Hz, (561.6 +/- 29.2) Hz; Qingyi (548.0 +/- 69.5) Hz, (543.5 +/- 79.3) Hz; these and other acoustic parameters of vowels such as Jitter, Shimmer and NNE were all within the normal range given by the software. The vocal range of Beijing Opera actors was from 1.7 to 2.8 oct, and most of the highest and the lowest pitches were higher than that of tenor or soprano.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings may help to provide insight regarding the acoustic characteristics of the voice of Beijing Opera actors.
Qu
C
C
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Affiliated Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital University of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100050, China. quchunyan@yahoo.com
Liu
Y
Y
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004324:Drama; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D014831:Voice / Q000502:physiology*; D014833:Voice Quality