Explore ‘The Voice as Musical Instrument’

BOWLING GREEN, O.—Of all the means of producing music, the human voice is perhaps the most flexible, according to Dr. Johan Sundberg of Sweden. A well-known researcher and specialist in voice acoustics, Sundberg will speak on “The Voice as Musical Instrument” as part of a special workshop Tuesday (Nov. 3) hosted by the Bowling Green State University Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders.

His free talk will begin at 11:30 a.m. in 101A Olscamp Hall.

Unlike that of a musical instrument, sound produced by the voice can be continuously varied in loudness, pitch and timbre thanks to physiology. Sundberg will explain how singers use these properties for musical expressivity and vocal economy.

A visiting professor at the University of London and the University of Freiburg in Germany, Sundberg conducts research concerning acoustical aspects of music in general and of the human voice in particular. He has written “The Science of Musical Sounds” and “The Science of the Singing Voice,” and has extensive experience as a singer.

Until his retirement in 2001, he was chair of the music acoustics research group that he founded in 1968 at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. He is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and a member and former president of the Swedish Acoustical Society, as well as a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America.

Sundberg’s visit is sponsored by the BGSU College of Health and Human Services and the College of Musical Arts. For more information, call 419-372-2515 or email rmonarc@bgsu.edu.

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(Posted October 28, 2009 )