Chapter XV. Types of Phono-photographic Records of Negro Singers

CHAPTER XV
TYPES OF PHONO-PHOTOGRAPHIC RECORDS OF NEGRO SINGERS

We have referred often in these pages to the wealth  of material found in the great variety and number of  the Negro's songs. We have appraised the collections  which have been published and those which are to  come as valuable source material for the study of folk  life and art and especially for their value in the portrayal of representative Negro life. Adequate analysis and presentation of these values will be possible  only after a number of the other collections have been  completed and comprehensive studies made.

There are other values not yet presented. For  example, the scientific study of the Negro's musical  ability has barely begun, but it promises much. The  work of Professor Carl E. Seashore and others has  resulted in the formulation of various tests and methods  for studying musical talent and singing ability. Many  valuable studies have been reported from various  psychological laboratories. One of the latest developments in this field is the phono-photographic method  of recording voices. In this method the phono-photo-graphic machine makes it possible to take pictures  of sound waves of all kinds. Among other things, it registers the most delicate variations in pitch, variations which are often too subtle for the human ear  to perceive. In short, it gives a picture of exactly  what a voice or a musical instrument does.

Naturally this method of sound wave analysis may be  of untold value in the study of the human voice. It enables the singer to see his voice in detail. It furnishes the scientist with data for the study of the  qualities which make a voice good or poor. It opens  up many possibilities, both practical and theoretical,  as a method of voice analysis.

Of special interest and importance is the application  of this method to the study of Negro singers and Negro  voices. It was therefore a fortunate turn of circumstances which made it possible for the authors of this  volume to join Professor Seashore and Dr. Milton  Metfessel of the University of Iowa in making extensive  phono-photographic studies of various Negro singers during the fall of 1925, with headquarters at the  University of North Carolina Institute for Research  in Social Science. Professor Seashore was able to  cooperate personally in the work at Hampton, while  Dr. Metfessel remained throughout the entire period  of the study. [1]

Among the types of Negro singers whose voices were  subjected to the phono-photographic process were  practically all of the common types which we have been  recording in the pages of this volume and of The Negro  and His Songs. There were the typical laborers,  working with pick and shovel. There was the lonely  singer, with his morning yodel or "holler." There  were the skilled workers with voices more or less  trained by practice and formal singing. There was  the more nearly primitive type, swaying body and  limb with singing. The noted quartet from Hampton  Institute, as well as individual singers there, cooperated. Men and women from the North Carolina  College for Negroes represented other types. Quartets and individuals from the high schools at Chapel Hill  and Raleigh, North Carolina, were still other types.

Finally the voices of one hundred and fifty Negro  children from the Orange County Training School at  Chapel Hill and the Washington School at Raleigh  were recorded. Types of songs included in the experiments were the gang work song, the pick-and-shovel song and various other work songs, the yodel,  the "1926 model laugh," the blues, formal quartet  music, spirituals, and children's songs. It would thus  appear that both the selections and the numbers were  adequate to make a valuable beginning in a new phase  of the subject.

The results of this study will be published fully later.  The present chapter is in no sense a report of the  results. It is intended merely to describe the phono-photographic study, to give some examples of records  obtained during the study, and to indicate certain  possibilities of this method as a scientific means of  research into Negro singing abilities and qualities.

The following explanation will suffice to acquaint  the reader with the method of reading the photographic  records presented in this chapter. Along the left side  of each graph are the notes of the scale in half steps.  When the heavy line which represents the voice rises  or falls one space on the graph, the voice has changed a  half tone in pitch. Time value is shown along the bottom of the graph. The vertical bars occurring every  5.55 spaces along the bottom mark off intervals of one second.

If one were to sing a perfectly rigid tone, its photographic record would be a horizontal straight line.  Such a thing is very rare, however, in any type of   singing, for most sustained tones photograph as more  or less irregular wavy lines. Indeed, a voice whose sustained tones photographed as a straight line would not produce as good tones as one with rapid and  regular variations of the vocal cords. A good singing voice possesses what is called the vibrato. In  terms of the photographic records, the pitch vibrato  consists of a rise and fall of pitch of about half a  tone about six times a second. In Figure I are given samples of tones photographed by Seashore and   Metfessel from the singing of Annie Laurie by Lowell  Welles. The first represents the singing of the word  "dew" in the line, "Where early fa's the dew." The  second is the word "and" from the line, "And for  bonnie Annie Laurie." The vibrato is present in  both tones. Note how the voice line varies above  or below the note E on "dew" and F-sharp on "and,"  sometimes as much as a quarter of a tone. Note also  the smoothness and regularity of the pitch fluctuations.  It is this smoothness of the vibrato which characterizes good singing.

To illustrate their scope, methods, and possibilities three specimens of photographic records of Negro  voices are presented : a song, / Got a Muley, [3] by Odell Walker; a yodel or "holler," as it is commonly  called, by Cleve Atwater; and Cleve's "1926 Model  Laugh."

Figure II is the photographic notation of I Got a  Muley. The music of the song as best it can be  represented in ordinary notation is given below.  Several interesting things are revealed by the song picture in Figure II. [4] For one thing, we have here a  picture of some of those elusive slurs which are so  common among Negro singers. Take the words "muley on a mount'n" in Figure II-A, for example.


 

When one hears these words as they were sung by  Odell Walker, one is apt to feel that with the exception  of the last syllable of "mount'n" they are all sung on  the same pitch. The graph shows that this is not so.  There are really drops in pitch of one and a half or two  whole tones at two places in this phrase. Or take the  word "ride," as it occurs in the phrase, "ride 'im any time I wan' uh," which phrase occurs twice in the  song. One can tell while listening to the song that  there is some sort of slur present, but it is impossible  to tell by means of the ear alone exactly what is happening. The graph reveals the fact that the singer actually begins the word "ride" between D-sharp and E and carries it as high as G-sharp. The outstanding  tone heard, however, is G-sharp. Other pitch changes  not shown in the ordinary musical notation may be  easily detected by the reader.

The vibrato is present in places in the record of this  song. It section A there is a trace of it on the word  "muley" the first time it occurs. In section B there  is an approach to it on the word "Jerry." In section C it occurs on the word "ride" the first time it  appears. In section D there is a tendency toward it  on "Lawd, Lawd," but is shows best in "long", the  last word of the song. A comparison with the examples  of artistic singing in Figure I shows that our Negro  workman's vibrato is rough and irregular and that it  does not maintain a steady general pitch level as does  Welles's vibrato. It must be borne in mind, however,  that this particular song does not afford good opportunties for sustained tones and that the Negro singer's  vibrato might have shown to better advatnage on a  different song.

In Figure III is a picture of a yodel or "holler."  It is the sort of thing which one hears from field hands  as they go to work in the morning, or from some gay-spirited pick-and-shovel man as he begins digging on a  frosty morning.

No attempt is made to include the ordinary musical  notation of the yodel, for it would give but a suggestion  of the vocal idiosyncrasies involved in the execution  of the yodel. The most remarkable thing about this  record is the sudden changes of pitch which it portrays.  In Figure III-A just at the beginning of the fifth second  interval the voice takes a sudden drop. Then it rises  from F to G in the octave above in about a third of a  second. In section B of the yodel, near the end of  the fifth second interval, the same spectacular rise occurs, this time from F-sharp to G-sharp in about one-tenth of a second. Still more remarkable are the  several rapid rises and falls in pitch in section C. In  the production of such sudden changes the vocal cords  must undergo a snap. Even in speech, where pitch  changes are very rapid, such sudden ascents and  descents do not occur.


It is also interesting to note that the vibrato is  present at times in the yodel. It is fairly plain on  C-sharp along the middle of section A and still better  on G at the end of the same section. It also shows at  the end of section B, continuing into section C; and  the yodel ends with a semi-vibrato. There is an approach to it in several other places. The vibrato of  our Negro worker, however, is rather erratic and  wavering in comparison with the vibrato of the vocal  artist in Figure I. Yet one must remember that our  subjects, both in Figure II and Figure III, were Negro  workers whose voices have never had a touch of formal
training.


In Figure IV [below] we have a photographic record of a  hearty Negro laugh. Its musical quality is at once  evident. In the first three seconds of the laugh there  is an unusual effect. It would not be called a vibrato  because the pitch changes are too rapid and too extensive to give the vibrato effect. Near the beginning of the fifth second of the laugh the voice breaks  up into a series of interrupted speech sounds. During the sixth second it suddenly becomes musical  again and remains so for about two seconds. Then,  after a rest, (see section B) the speech sounds reappear and continue intermittently to the end of the laugh.

These observations indicate some of the possibilities  of the phono-photographic method of studying Negro  voices and Negro songs. When the complete results of  the recent study are ready for publication we may have  data which will make it possible to compare scientifically the voices of different kinds of Negro singers as  well as the voices of Negro and white singers.

Other studies and correlations may be made through  the articulation of the moving pictures of the singers, their faces, their bodily movements, their emotional  expressions, and whatever reactions the camera may  reveal. In nearly all instances where phono-photo-graphic records were made of Negro voices in the recent  study, moving pictures were made of the singers. In
addition to these, moving pictures were made of  groups of workmen while singing. Some remarkable  examples of skill in movement, of coordination of song  with work, of mixture of humor, pathos, and recklessness with work and song were brought to light.  These have been incorporated into a series of three  reels. Some of these pictures of facial expression during singing will be included in the report of the  study when it is published in complete form.

Many interesting questions may find their solutions  if the scientific method is applied to the study of Negro  singing ability. Is the vibrato a native endowment?  Is the vibrato more frequent among Negroes than  among whites? At what age does it appear in the  voice? [5] What other qualities cause the rank and  file of Negroes to excel as singers? Is the Negro's capacity for harmony greater than the white man's? Is  his sense of rhythm better? These are some of the  questions which science should be able to answer in  the near future.

FOOTNOTES
 

[1] Dr. Metfessel, using the perfected machine which long years of work at  the University of Iowa psychological laboratories have produced, was successful in obtaining a large number of satisfactory records. He also took
moving pictures of the singers. Needless to say, we are indebted to him for the material of this chapter.

[3] The tune is slightly different from the music of the song of the same name  given in Chapter XIV. It is variously called / Got a Mule on the Mountain,  I Got Mule Named Jerry, I Got a Muley, Jerry on Mountain.

[4] A measure on the graph is equivalent to approximately nine spaces on  the horizontal scale. Note that the singer did not keep accurate time. His  measures range from six to twelve spaces.

[5] A study of the voices of white and Negro school children now being made  by Milton Metfessel and Guy B. Johnson may throw some light upon some of  these questions.