title: Word Intelligibility in Multi-voice Singing: The Influence of Chorus Size.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study investigated how the intelligibility of sung words is influenced by the number of singers in a choral music style.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study used repeated measures factorial. One hundred forty-nine participants listened to recordings of spoken and sung English words and attempted to identify the words. Each stimuli word was sung or spoken in sync by either one, four, eight, sixteen, or twenty-seven members of a high-quality Soprano Alto Tenor Bass (SATB) choir.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In general, single-voice word recognition was higher than multi-voice word recognition in the sung condition. However, the difference between four concurrent singers and the full choir was negligible; that is, reduced intelligibility with multiple singers shows little sensitivity to the number of singers. The principal effect of voice density on intelligibility is found to occur with coda consonants-a result consistent with the importance many choral conductors attribute to coordinating word offsets. In particular, the plosives /b/, /d/, /g/, and /p/ are easily confused. Coda liquids (/l/,/r/) were also found to be a source of confusion. Finally, an increasing density of voices appears to have a facilitating effect for the coda nasal /m/.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Groups of four or more choral singers do appear to be less intelligible than single singers, although the observed effect is modest. However, increasing the number of singers in a choral texture beyond four singers does not appear to further degrade intelligibility.
authors.affiliation: Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.. Electronic address: condit-schultz.1@osu.edu.
authors.forename: Nathaniel
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Condit-Schultz
authors.affiliation: Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Huron
mesh_terms: D001299:Audiometry; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D010700:Phonetics; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D063346:Singing; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013065:Speech Intelligibility; D013067:Speech Perception; D014833:Voice Quality
keywords: Choral music; Intelligibility; Lyrics; Singing; Voice numerosity