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Finland Scandinavian Voice Research Open
Symposium in Honor of Aatto Sonninen Reflections on European Voice Research Aatto Sonninen Department
of Communication, University of Jyvaskyla Roots of Modern Voice Research Man has sung through the ages. For example, the lyre carved in a Sumerian seal ring suggests that in Mesopotamia people used to sing accompanying themselves on a lyre as early as 5000 years ago. It is not known when an analytical interest on the human voice came up. Probably it has been a part of the Western culture from “hieroglyphics to silicon chips” (Vilkman 1990). What time might the following statements, not in the original language, date from: “Beim Öffnen and Schliessen der Kehlritze wird der Wind zu Ton”? or “The breath is wind, the pressure derives from the abdomen; the glottis opens and closes and thereby the wind is transformed into breath or tone”. The Indian poet Saunaka presented such ideas in his Rig-Veda poem about 2600 years ago. This information is from Panconcelli-Calzia’s book “3000 Jahre Stimmforschung” from 1961. The book has a well-fitting subtitle: “Die Wiederkehr des Gleichen”. As the Bible says: There is no new thing under the sun. The newest new may not be new at all. A particular finding - maybe under a different name or written in a different language - may have been published far earlier in Europe than outside it, as pointed out by Jorge Perelló in his 1992 review of the book “Professional Voice” by Robert Sataloff. The article by Donald Cooper “Leopold Réthi and laryngeal muscle mechanics”, published 1991 in journal of Voice, gives a further example. In the article, the observations of American researchers on the contraction forces in living humans’ posterior cricoarytenoid muscle were supported by the findings of Réthi published a century earlier. Already in the ancient times attempts were made to cure vocal problems. However, as there is the possibility of misfunction in all human activity, care may sometimes have an unhappy end. The Greek Antifone describes such a case 400 B.C.: A singer boy died from a drink that was supposed to improve his voice. The story suggests that already in antiquity vocal care should have been based on actual knowledge. The Iraqi Ali Daoud reported in 1965 that the Graeco-Arabic medicine described the anatomy and physiology of the larynx essentially correctly as early as in the ninth century A.D. In the writings of the Arab physicians Rhazes, Haly Abass and Avicenna there are descriptions of vocal disturbances and instructions on how to cure them by e.g. breathing exercises at a time when people in Europe were still wondering “ob Stimme etwas Körperliches sei oder nicht” and “Wer sprach zuerst, Adam oder Eva?” (Panconcelli-Calzia 1961,127). Aesthetic styles of vocal use and together with them voice research as well spread gradually from the Mediterranean countries to the rest of Europe. Gregorian chant was unisonous. However, as early as during the Gothic period the songs became polyphonic. In the renaissance period, the tones of a cappella songs flowed cool and soft, thoughtful and simple, clear in tone and bright. Such singing probably required little from the vocal folds. This idyll was in time perplexed by the development of mechanics and science. New musical instruments were constructed. Orchestras enlarged and gave up their accompanying role. The French revolution broke out and the world was filled with brass music and singing masses of people. The time came for Wagner with his gigantic orchestra and overlong performances. The larynx had to face new challenges. The culture of our time has multiplied the challenges. The developments described above pose increasing demands on scientific voice research and therapy. In my opinion, modern voice research started in 1741 with an experiment by the French physician, Antoine Ferrein, which showed that vocal folds are needed for voice production and that the glottis is the focus of the research on the singing voice. Ferrein made a remarkable finding: Loudness of voice increased as the size of the glottal chink was decreased and/or when subglottic pressure was increased. The
experiment of Ferrein inspired a series of experimental studies
of phonation with excised larynges, animals and mechanical models.
Eager experiments gave rise to many theories of voice production,
which eventually crystallized into the aerodynamic-myoelastic
theory of vocal fold vibration. Researchers taking this approach
have sometimes been blamed for seeing a singer just as a pair
of vocal folds walking on two feet. However, many of the methods
introduced by Ferrein and his followers are still useful. Gradually,
scientific voice research and literature grew noteworthy and versatile.
National and international associations of speech and voice researchers
were founded. For example, the International Association of Logopedics
and Phoniatrics (IALP) was founded in 1924. Congresses in the
field frequently took place in various parts of Europe (Pere11ó
1982).
Modern Approaches to Voice The year 1939 brought an abrupt and unfortunate interruption in the advancement of voice research. The greatest disaster in recent history, the Second World War, broke out. It demanded the lives of millions of people and stopped many good enterprises in the world, among them the development of scientific research on the human voice in Europe. The Dutch member of the executive committee of the IALP, van Dantzig, died in a gas chamber together with millions of people. Many voice scientists like Emil Fröschels, Deso Weiss, and Friedrich Brodnitz fled to the United States taking with them European know-how. The war ended at last in 1945 - to the atomic bomb. Rebuilding started. In my thoughts, the mushroom-shaped form created by a nuclear explosion became associated with the oak tree figuring in the Finnish national epic Kalevala (Bosley 1989, 2:81-88). Could this story reflect an archaic memory of a meteor that had in some ancient times fallen on the earth producing a huge cloud of dust that obscured the sun or did our ancestors have a premonition of the things to come, of the most horrible weapon of mass destruction the explosion of which can veil the sun?
The pioneer of modern voice research, Ferrein, was a Frenchman. The Spaniard Garcia also worked in France most of his lifetime. In 1950 France astonished the voice research community in a way that determined the direction of research for decades. If the new theory of phonation, the neurochronaxic theory, had proven to be true, the physicist and mathematician Raoul Husson (1950) would undoubtedly have deserved the epithet “Copernicus of voice research”. The theory was truly revolutionary: it gave a new explanation of the control of fundamental frequency. Every single vibration of the vocal folds arises “coup pour coup” at the very moment determined by the central nervous system -regardless of the tension of the vocal folds and the subglottic pressure. The theory, which appealed to many researchers, was a scientific “declaration of war”. The conflict lasted for about twenty years. I myself had to participate in the dispute. When I started to specialize in phoniatrics, my respected teacher Lennart Sjöström suggested a fascinating object of study to me: try to find out whether the categorical statement of the Frenchman Jean Tarneaud (1937) “la corde vocale est parfaitement inextensible” holds true. With the aid of the roentgenologist Carl Sjöblom I obtained excellent radiographic pictures of the ossification centers of the larynx. I was able to measure the length of vocal folds from lateral radiograms. My first publication indisputably showed that the vocal folds lengthen as the voice fundamental frequency rises (Sonninen 1954). I received a personal letter from Richard Luchsinger telling me that he regarded my work as an important piece of evidence against the theory of Husson. In my doctoral dissertation (Sonninen 1956) I also found out that the singing of high notes becomes more difficult if one bends the head backwards. This also contradicts the theory of Husson. Luchsinger asked my permission to have the dissertation translated in German and published in Folia Phoniatrica. In 1958, an essential part of the work was published in Folia phoniatrica (Sonninen 1958). A polemic correspondence with Husson ensued. In the IALP congress in Barcelona in 1956, vivid conversations on the theory of Husson took place. The Dane Svend Smith presented in the corridors his Munyo, a simple rubber model of the vocal folds. The model was capable of producing surprisingly lively tones at different pitches resembling sounds in chest and falsetto registers, thus supporting the old aerodynamic-myoelastic theory of voice production. After the congress many studies both opposing and supporting the theory of Husson were published. Occasionally, the theory received support from uncritical followers. The discussion about the neurochronaxic theory gradually subsided - but not until the 1970’s. In the Nordic Seminar on Singing Pedagogy at Hasselby castle in Stockholm in 1969 there were still some dedicated supporters of Husson’s theory present. Later I have met some supporters also in Moscow. An essential question in the theory was whether the anatomical structure of the vocal folds allows single muscle fibers to contract independent of each other, thus causing vocal fold vibrations. A direct contact of the muscle fibers to the vocal ligament was seen as a prerequisite for that. Many investigations on the microscopic structure of the vocal fold were conducted in order to solve the problem. The study of Goerttler (1951) appeared to some extent to give support to the theory of Husson, while later investigations like those of Wustrow (1952), van den Berg and Moll (1955), Mayet (1955), Sonesson (1960) and Zenker (1964) did not support it. Thus, the myoelastic theory of voice production survived as far as vocal fold structure was concerned. As a result, the theory was greatly developed. From the point of view of the current double vibration theory of voice production advocated by Minoru Hirano (1975), the theory of Husson merely concerned the body of the vocal fold, the muscular layer of the vocal folds. Thus, the neurochronaxic theory disregarded the vocal fold cover, the membranous portion of the vocal fold, and its elasticity, which according to current knowledge greatly affects voice production and voice quality. However, Hirano was not the first researcher to pay attention to the vocal fold cover; to my knowledge, the first were Europeans, Smith (1958) in “Den subglottiske slimhindes betydning for stemmedannelsen” and Perelló (1962) in “La théorie muco-ondulatoire de la phonation”. Interpretations of neurophysiological experiments conducted by advocates of Husson’s theory did not pass critical tests. Laget (1953) observed by stroboscopy that an electrically induced current in the exposed recurrent laryngeal nerve of a dog produced vibrations at the same rate in the vocal folds without the supporting air column. Other investigators made similar observations supporting Husson’s theory. However, EMG-investigations of the human larynx by Faaborg-Andersen (1957) convincingly showed that the maximum discharge rate in single active motor units was only about 30 Hz, far below the vibration frequency of the vocal folds. Vibrations of higher rate observed in the tissue were not related to action potentials causing contractions of the muscle fibers. Instead, they can be interpreted as the so-called microphonic effect, which can be brought about e.g. by quickly vibrating a nasal polyp. Van den Berg (1958) summarized the numerous theoretical and experimental arguments against the theory of Husson. Husson was born in 1901 and he died in the age of 66, probably disappointed by the unfavourable reception that his theory had met with. He started working on his doctoral dissertation already at the age of 21. The work lasted for 28 years under the distinguished guidance of the phonetician Rousselot, the phoniatrician Tarneaud and the physiologist Lapicque. Husson had a wide knowledge of the scientific literature of his time. His work was by no means in vain. On the contrary, without his work our knowledge of vocal physiology would certainly be much more fragmentary. Hardly anyone but Husson has had such a stimulating effect on the research of vocal fold anatomy and the role of the central nervous system in phonation. In my opinion, the life work of Husson deserves the deference and commendation of succeeding generations. The lesson that can be learned from the scientific “war” described above is on one hand the fact that the bold and unprejudiced framing of questions - possibly leading to erroneous conclusions - is not dangerous, something to be feared. On the contrary, it may help in opening quite new perspectives. On the other hand, however, a scientist must always aim at confirming in all respects the validity and reliability of his observations. The Finnish philosopher of science Ilkka Niiniluoto (1980) discusses the scientific method in the following manner: As a theory is to be approved, in the scientific method the reason for the approval must not be the authority of the presenter of the theory - the fact that a well-known scientist presents it - or that it is morally or politically expedient to believe that the theory is true. Neither is the reason for the approval a feeling of certainty in the researcher produced by his intuitive entering into the theory. The reason for the approval of a theory is and must be the fact that the argumentation included in the theory forces one to do so. The experiments and conclusions that the scientist makes an appeal to must be such that in principle everyone, who has received a proper education, can repeat and understand them. Science does not approve established prejudices and perpetual authorities. Current research results will not have a lasting position of authority in the future. Thus, scientific research is an everlasting process. More than 40 years have passed without anyone seriously trying to use the method that I used for measuring the length of vocal folds. One reason for that may be the remark by Zenker and Zenker (1960:6) suggesting that the methods I used were unreliable. This claim is valid if we examine just a few subjects. However, the probability of reliably obtaining visible ossification centers is over 50% in adults. Taking this into account, the method of measurement in question is at least as reliable as the methods used nowadays. Together with Erkki Vilkman and Pertti Hurme I have recently published reanalyzed and statistically elaborated results from my early measurements on the lengthening of vocal folds (Sonninen, Vilkman & Hurme 1992). In addition, a manuscript titled “Vocal Fold Strain in Singing: Roentgenographic and Acoustic Observations”, written together with Pertti Hurme, has been submitted for publication. It is well known that with increasing vocal fold strain (and stiffness), pitch rises. We also discuss the possibility of pitch remaining the same within a subject, even though there is variation in strain. Such a finding can hardly be caused by errors in measurements, since the results differed statistically significantly and systematically accross the subjects’ gender, age, amount of vocal training and mode of singing. The human voice can be examined in the context of the prerequisites of human communication. One of the prerequisites is the physical world. Tellus, our planet, developed from the cold residua of a star. The atmosphere that gradually developed may be unique in the universe. Of all the nine planets in our solar system there is water only on Tellus. The ancient Greeks distinguished four elements in their natural philosophy: water, earth, air, and fire. The primary elements of life, water and air, are exceptional in the known universe. The atmosphere gives the globe a bluish colour and protects from the deadly rays of the sun while water smoothes out the temperature differences and carries nutritive substances to where they are needed. Life depends on clean air and water. The communication systems of various organisms have also developed in the conditions of water and air. Life came into existence in water. The function of the nervous system adapted itself to the conditions of water. For a long time, the communication between organisms took place only via water. Although most of the organisms adapted to dry solid ground, the initial and final phase of auditory-vocal communication still takes place in water. Our brain does not hear acoustic vibrations. A transducer, the inner ear, is needed. The inner ear is located in the cranium - in water. According to the laws of physics, a sound is damped to one thousandth (30 dB) when it is transferred from air into water. Thus, metaphorically speaking, out of one thousand units only one penetrates into water and 999 units are wasted. Even if one’s head is under the water the sound coming from outside will always be transferred from air into water, thus becoming 30 dB weaker. Although we live on dry land our body is mainly water. Many organs float in water, e.g. the brain and the organ of Corti, central in the hearing process. Because of this, in the diseases of the middle ear and in bone conducted hearing the threshold of hearing is always at least 30 dB higher than in normal hearing. In order to improve the situation (to lower the threshold of hearing) the outer ear and the middle ear amplify the sound by about26 dB. This compensates for the damping of the sound energy as sound is transferred from air into water. If an organism of dry land evolved into one permanently living in water, the middle ear would no longer be needed. Indeed, the auditory ossicles of the whales have become ossified and the auditory canal (meatus) is filled with cerumen. Hearing is a prerequisite for the normal development of phonatory abilities from the infancy. Many studies show the importance of the elasticity of the vocal fold cover for good voice quality. Elasticity is related to the amount of water in the vocal folds. Water is stored in polycacchrides and hyaluronic acid molecules in the interfibrillar spaces of the vocal fold tissue. They can absorb much water. Is it possible that vocal warm-up means increasing the elasticity of the vocal fold cover in this way? When the vocal fold cover becomes dry its stiffness increases. Dry and stiff vocal folds are not capable of small-amplitude vibration required in piano singing. To sum up, we can say that the larynx and the ear form a functional unity: The vocal folds filled with water together with the vocal tract filled with air as the message sender and the air-filled outer and middle ears and the water-filled inner ear as the receiver transmit kinetic energy between air and water molecules. In the known universe there is at least one blue planet, where air and water enable this kind of an ingenuous communication system. From the point of voice production, the glottis has central role in this communication system. According to Dorland’s medical dictionary, the glottis is the vocal apparatus of the larynx consisting of the true vocal folds and the opening between them (rima glottidis). The glottis is the central object of voice research. As described above, sound is generated in a complex process involving air and water molecules in the glottis. Lungs and respiratory muscles supply the energy for voice production. One part of this “lung power” is used for the purpose of initiating the vibration of air molecules, i.e. voice. The power used to make the vocal folds vibrate, even though indispensable, is actually waste of energy and occasionally even detrimental - as shown by the growth of vocal nodules. Thus, the glottis transducer DC to AC in a complex manner. Voice is not generated by the vibrating vocal folds as suggested by the theory of Husson but through the cooperation of the vocal folds (water molecules) and the air molecules in the trachea and the vocal tract. The behavior of the water molecules inside the vocal folds is controlled by a complex muscular and connective tissue system. The behavior of the supra- and subglottal air molecules, in turn, is controlled by adjusting the length and diameter of the suprasubglottal cavities and to some extent the subglottal cavities as well as through the cul-de-sac phenomenon of the nasal cavity. The latest studies have underscored the role of the vocal tract in voice production. I saw startling evidence of the importance of the vocal tract for vocal fold vibration while witnessing an experiment with an excised larynx conducted by Vilkman, Laine and Koljonen (1991). As an appropriate glass tube was sealed to a larynx preparate which was producing a soft humming sound, vocal fold vibration improved remarkably resulting in a strong, wellsupported voice. The modern research on the effects of the vocal tract on voice and speech production, carried out world-wide, is in my opinion largely based on the work of two European scientists, who need no further introduction. One is the Dutchman Janwillem van den Berg, the other is the Swede Gunnar Fant. Fant (1960) created the theoretical basis to the concepts source and filter in speech production. Van den Berg (1953) introduced two kinds of concepts: internal coupling between the vocal folds and external coupling from the vocal cavities to the glottis. In the study of voice, the primary target is the origin of voice in the glottis. Starting from the limitations and possibilities set by the anatomy and physiology of the voice organ we can centrifugally widen our point of view to the neuromuscular control of the voice organ and further to the role of personality, age, gender and culture in vocal behavior. We should study the differences in phonatory behavior in speech, crying, laughing, shouting, commanding, singing. We should know how voice is optimally produced and how voices deviate from the optimum due to diseases or to acquired unfavourable habits. We should know the social significance of voice in different cultures. We should be able to define a voice disorder and find causes for various disorders. We should know their incidence in order to be able to target the preventive and curative measures and resources needed for them. We should find the most effective medical organization. W e should know who to train as therapists etc. All
these topics and many more have been studied in the about 3000
publications by European scientists that I have investigated by
means of bibliometric methods. European publications on voice I have collected for this overview 2900 publications covering the period from 1940 to the middle of the year 1996. The following journals have been examined systematically: Acta Otolaryngologica, Folia phoniatrica, Sprache-Stimme-Gehör and Journal of Voice. In addition, a number of journal articles, congress reports and reprints from my private library have been included. Needless to say, the bibliometric analysis is subjective and preliminary and does not cover the entire body of voice research literature in Europe. It is clear that there are many gaps in my material as I could not browse all journals possibly containing some publications on voice. In general, however, there has been a steady growth in the amount of publications during this time although between 1960 and 1980 the amount has for some reason or another stayed about the same. The national distribution of the publications has been examined during two periods: between 1940 and 1971, and between 1972 and 1996. The leader in the total amount of publications is Germany and the very next is Sweden. Thereafter come Finland, France, Great Britain, Holland, Denmark, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and Italy. The amount of publications in all countries is larger in the later time interval, with the exception of France and Switzerland. In order to find what European articles on voice have been referred to by other researchers, I examined in detail two journals, Journal of Voice (1987-) and Scandinavian Journal of Logopedics and Phoniatrics (1991-). In my analysis, I neglected references given by the author to him/ herself and to other researchers from the same country. Researchers with more than 10 references have been included. This way I wanted to see how well known a researcher was among the researchers of other countries. Evidently, the rank order shown in the table should be taken with a grain of salt.
DENMARK FINLAND BELGIUM FRANCE GERMANY GREAT
BRITAIN HOLLAND SWITZERLAND
Perceptual evaluation. In my material, starting from 1940, the earliest publication that I found on perceptual voice analysis was by the Dane Svend Smith from the year 1947: Analysis of vowel sounds by ear. Most publications (47%0) on perceptual voice evaluation come from Sweden. Both normal and pathological voices have been studied perceptually. Listening tests have been developed and norms have been formed for scales to be used in the evaluation. The results of listening evaluation have been compared with the results obtained by various analysis devices. However, instrumental methods can never substitute for the well-trained human ear in voice evaluation. Often the ear is the final arbiter in the interpretation of the results obtained with instruments. On the other hand, with acoustic analyzers we can observe phenomena that our ear ignores or that are difficult to detect by ear. Nowadays there is a growing tendency to combine perceptual evaluation and objective methods. Self-organizing maps. The self-organizing map, a voice and sound analysis method developed by the Finn Teuvo Kohonen (1990), has a position between subjective and objective analysis: the computer follows on one hand the functional principles of the human brain, on the other hand those of objective acoustic analysis. The speciality of the method is that the computer “learns” to recognize various voice and sound qualities and shows them in a map so that the samples most widely differing from each other obtain positions widest apart from each other. In my material, the majority of publications using self-organizing maps, 13 in all, come from Finland, starting from 1982. Acoustic analysis. The phonetic-acoustic analysis of voice has a long tradition in Europe. Hermann Gutzmann, the founder of Phoniatrics, was a physician. His book “Physiologie den Stimme and Sprache” (1909) played a remarkable role in the development of phonetics and the acoustics of voice and speech. The discipline of phonetics in Finland has its origin at the Department Physiology and the Faculty of Medicine, too. The “debt” owed by phonetics and the acoustics of voice and speech to medicine has now been paid more than fully by the eminent contribution given to phoniatrics and logopedics by scientists like Gunnar Fant with his co-workers and students. The earliest acoustic study of voice in the present material is “Elektroakustische Nachbildung individueller Vokalklange als Mittel fur Sprachuntersuchungen by the German Karl Wagner, dating from 1947. Sweden has the largest share of publications in acoustic voice research in Europe, 36%. Voice range profile. The voice range profile, also known as phonetography, is an acoustic method for studying a person’s maximal ability to vary pitch and loudness of phonation. The earliest research of this kind is by the Frenchmen Calvet & Malhiac 1952. At the present, voice range profile is a basic method in the examination of both normal and pathological voices. In the material, most studies on the subject (30%) have been published in Germany. Long-time average spectrum. Long-term-average spectrum (LTAS) analysis gives information on the average distribution of sound energy along the frequency axis. Thus, it can reflect differences in voice quality. The earliest European publications in which LTAS was applied, are those by Jansson & Sundberg (1974) in Sweden on music acoustics and by Timo Leino (1975) in Finland on singing and speaking voice. Most of the publications in the material (43%) come from Sweden. Inverse filtering. Inverse filtering is a method describing glottal airflow variation during phonation. As late as 1964, Van den Berg was rather skeptic about the usefulness of the method - based on his experiences during the years 1930-40. On the other hand, Fant promoted research in this area. Indeed, many studies with the inverse filtering method have been carried out in Sweden, 15 (starting in 1988). In Finland 14 inverse filtering studies have been carried out since 1990. I believe that inverse filtering - especially used in connection with other research methods - will be one of the most important voice research methods in the future. Electroglottography. The electroglottograph (EGG) was introduced by the Frenchman M. P. Fabré in 1957. The greatest advantage of electroglottography is its noninvasiveness: nothing is inserted in the mouth of the subject. Instead, the vibratory behavior of the vocal folds is studied by placing a pair of thin electrodes on the neck, at the level of the vocal folds. Harmless electric current between the electrodes reflects the continuously varying contact of the vibrating vocal folds. Twin-channel electroglottography allows for the study of changes in the vertical position of the larynx as well. Various versions of the electroglottograph are available and the use of this method has increased. Most of the EGG publications in my material (18%) are published in Great Britain by Adrian Fourcin and his research group. The role of electroglottography in voice research has been compared to that of electrocardiography in medicine. Photoelectric glottography. In photoglottography (PGG) a fototube is inserted in the mouth of the subject and a light source is placed against the neck beneath the glottis. A photocell inside the tube reacts to the varying amount of light producing an electric current. Changes in this current reflect variations in the glottal area. The first PGG publication in my material is by the Dane Borge Frokjaer-Jensen in 1958. Most of the publications (57%) come from Sweden. To sum up, glottal phenomena can be studied by registering glottal airflow using inverse filtering, variations in the glottal area with PGG and movements of the glottal tissue with EGG, even simultaneously. Stroboscopy. Stroboscopy was invented in Europe: the first device of this kind was constructed by the Belgian physicist and physiologist Joseph Plateau (1833). By stroboscopy it is possible to see vocal fold vibration in slow motion. The stroboscope was adopted in the clinical examination of vocal fold vibration by M. Oertel in 1879. In my material there are 115 publications on stroboscopy; the earliest publications come from Denmark in 1942 (Svend Smith) and from Switzerland in 1946 (Richard Luchsinger). Modern stroboscopy is used already all over the world in clinical routine, often together with video recordings. In clinical work the device is useful in differential diagnosis, in documentation and in follow-up. Ultra high-speed photography. With stroboscopic illumination, motionpicture photography was accomplished by Chevroton and Vles in 1913 and in 1914 by Hegener and Panconcelli-Calzia. Ultra high speed (UHS) filming of the vocal folds, started in Bell Laboratories in 1938, is a far more exact method of studying vocal fold vibration than stroboscopy. In my material the first study is by Luchsinger (1954), who was able to film 4000 frames per second. In all there were 16 publications in my material, the majority of them from Germany. Electromyography. The earliest studies using electromyography (EMG) in European voice research literature are from Great Britain in 1946 and Sweden in 1949; in the 1950’s there are some publications from Poland, France and Denmark. Starting from 1960’s the method began to be used also in Finland, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia and Germany. The largest number of publications (18) are from Sweden. EMG is an important instrument for the objective study of muscular function. Some of the studies have applied surface electrodes although needle electrodes can give more exact information on the activity of the muscles. Voice therapy and pedagogy. There are many approaches and schools in vocal therapy and pedagogy. Phonosurgery interferes with the cause of the voice disorder. According to the material analyzed here, the first phonosurgical operation was carried out by Y. Meurman in Finland in the 1952. In recent years, a large number of publications in the field come from France (e.g. Bouchayer 1992). Other approaches include medication, physical therapy, and psychotherapy, among others. Voice exercises include relaxation, voice massage and laryngeal manipulation (Gu Lide, Haupt 1986, Hülse 1991, Eerola & Koskinen 1996), the use of mental images (Fernau-Horn 1954), health courses („Heilkur“, Gundermann 1993), and music therapy and dance. More elaborated approaches include the accent method (Smith &Thyme 1976, Fex, Fex, Shiromo and Hirano, 1994) and the chewing method of Fröschels (1982, see also Weiss & Beebe 1952). A speaker or singer can also get feedback from various, usually digital, devices. Many studies concern the suitability of a certain method developed by others for a certain task - and what kind of results can be obtained with it. A clinician, however, sometimes takes a sceptical attitude towards the optimism derived from a single experiment testing the suitability of a certain method. Publications on voice and speech pedagogy and therapy often illustrate the use and examine the effectiveness of certain methods, exercises and instruments. Nevertheless, they often lack credible and objectively verified or verifiable scientific knowledge of the real object and goal of training or therapy. Research and therapy do not meet. The voice researcher wants to construct a theory of voice production to understand what really happens in the glottis, while the voice therapist and pedagogue are more interested in the successful outcome of therapy and voice pedagogy. One can present many positive arguments for voice science. Firstly, it helps us to better understand what really happens in voice production. It contributes to more effective singing training and therapy of voice disorders. Through research it is possible to improve the accuracy of the terms used so that people working on voice better can understand each other and thus avoid miscommunication. Etymologically, dia is ‘through’ in Greek and gnosis means ‘knowledge’. The object of treatment and education should be known as precisely as possible. It is undoubtedly more effective to treat voice problems if the cause or the causes of the problem are known. It may then be possible to focus the treatment precisely on the problem. The task of science is to find out the core of the problem. It is seldom easy and it may also be impossible. However, steps in that direction would help research to become truly explanatory and therapy to become more effective. About
17% of publications on voice therapy (in all 247) in my material
used some objective criteria for measuring the results of the
therapy; very few of these studies applied the double blind test
method. Thus, the majority of the publications lack such criteria.
During the last few years more and more activity has been directed
to charting occupational risk factors and occupational health
care. There are surveys of the situation of vocal care in various
countries. Objective instruments to be used in ordinary environments
outside laboratories have been developed for measuring the amount
of daily voice use.
Conclusion During the last 50 years the focus of voice research seems to have changed from qualitative to quantitative aspects. Measuring and its accuracy have adopted a central position beside the effort towards understanding the main phenomenon, the production of voice. Are we really measuring what we think we are? Do our studies catch „shadow or substance“? What is the ontological nature of the object of our study? How permanent are our results? Instead of being „lone rangers“, the voice researchers of today more often belong to interdisciplinary teams. The nature of scientific reporting seems to have changed from merely stating the results of a study towards international written interaction between researchers. Both national and international organizations have been formed and meetings have been arranged for people working in the field, e.g. International Decade of Research in Singing (IDRS), Gesangswissenschaftliche Tagungen in Germany, Röstfrämjandet in Sweden, Voice Foundation in USA, British Voice Association, Pan-European Voice Conference (PEVOC), Collegium Medicorum Theatri, and many others. An impeding factor in voice research and communication between people working on voice is the tangled and imprecise terminology. It is nowadays possible to go to a store and buy a can of a paint of a particular colour by giving a code number. Do we not have sufficient resources to develop an international code for the classification of normal and disordered voice both from the point of view of production, acoustics and perception in co-operation between different professions in the field? Perceptual evaluation, self-organizing maps, acoustic and physiological methods, voice synthesis etc. can help in the classification of voice. The creation of reference voices is a challenge for voice research. Voice
research needs to be both fundamental and applied. In Europe,
the emphasis has largely been on applied voice research. However,
fundamental research appears to receive increasing attention not
only in the USA and in Japan but also in Europe. Several European
countries are on a high international level: e.g. Sweden, the
Netherlands and Germany, to mention a few. A prerequisite for
the advancement of science is an active team work involving singing
pedagogues, voice scientists, voice therapists and all those taking
an interest in singing. Epilogue Who
then took a bough Kenpä
siitä oksan otti,
As
from the fells the brook so gently streameth, Kuin
tunturilla puro hiljaa helää, So
let me thank Thee for what Thou gavest: Ja
siksi kiitän sua , laulu hento: Yrjö
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