Singer s Medicine – Vizualisation of physiological aspects

Background In singers and speakers, the underlying processes inside the body normally cannot be seen.

Method An important milestone in the history of voice physiology was the first observation of the larynx s function during phonation on a living person in the mid-19^th century. Max Joseph Oertel introduced stroboscopy to laryngology by the end of the 19^th century. It took decades for stroboscopy to be introduced into routine clinical diagnostics. In the German-speaking countries, this was first carried out in the early 1960s by Elimar Sch rl. Other important milestones in the optical representation of vocal fold vibrations were the development of films with fast, so-called high-speed cameras. In addition, to visualize dynamic movements of the berathing apparatus and the vocal tract, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has been introduced.

Nowadays, dynamic MRI can be performed with 24 frames per second and high-speed imaging with 20.000 frames per second. With the help of modern investigative techniques from high-tech medicine – including dynamic MRI, endoscopy, stroboscopy and high-speed glottography – it is possible to observe most of the organic systems inside the body which are involved in sound production. During the last decade – while our research group has been exploring the bodily processes which are involved in the act speaking and singing – a good number of scientific papers could be published.

Results In the course of this research a comprehensive amount of film material has been gathered, which visually presents the movements in different singing styles, including classical and popular, while sound is being produced.

Discussion During the talk example of those films and their use in the daily care of singers in musicians s medicine were discussed.

Poster-PDF A-1877.PDF

Publication History

Article published online:
10 June 2020