full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Ming Luke: What's a squillo, and why do opera singers need it?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


This is the key to an oprea singer’s power of projection. An operatic soprano— the highest of the four standard voice parts— can produce notes with fundamental frequencies rnangig from 250 to 1,500 vibrations per second. huamn ears are most sensitive to fieeencqurs between 2,000 and 5,000 vibrations per second. So if the sngier can bnirg out the partials in this range, she can target a sensory sweet spot where she’s most likely to be heard. Higher partials are also advantageous because there’s less competition from the orchestra, whose overtones are weaker at those frequencies. The result of emphasizing these partials is a distinctive ringing timbre claeld a singer’s squillo.

Open Cloze


This is the key to an _____ singer’s power of projection. An operatic soprano— the highest of the four standard voice parts— can produce notes with fundamental frequencies _______ from 250 to 1,500 vibrations per second. _____ ears are most sensitive to ___________ between 2,000 and 5,000 vibrations per second. So if the ______ can _____ out the partials in this range, she can target a sensory sweet spot where she’s most likely to be heard. Higher partials are also advantageous because there’s less competition from the orchestra, whose overtones are weaker at those frequencies. The result of emphasizing these partials is a distinctive ringing timbre ______ a singer’s squillo.

Solution


  1. human
  2. called
  3. ranging
  4. frequencies
  5. bring
  6. opera
  7. singer

Original Text


This is the key to an opera singer’s power of projection. An operatic soprano— the highest of the four standard voice parts— can produce notes with fundamental frequencies ranging from 250 to 1,500 vibrations per second. Human ears are most sensitive to frequencies between 2,000 and 5,000 vibrations per second. So if the singer can bring out the partials in this range, she can target a sensory sweet spot where she’s most likely to be heard. Higher partials are also advantageous because there’s less competition from the orchestra, whose overtones are weaker at those frequencies. The result of emphasizing these partials is a distinctive ringing timbre called a singer’s squillo.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
vocal folds 3
frequencies called 2
opera singers 2
singers work 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
opera singers work 2

Important Words


  1. advantageous
  2. bring
  3. called
  4. competition
  5. distinctive
  6. ears
  7. emphasizing
  8. frequencies
  9. fundamental
  10. heard
  11. higher
  12. highest
  13. human
  14. key
  15. notes
  16. opera
  17. operatic
  18. orchestra
  19. overtones
  20. partials
  21. power
  22. produce
  23. projection
  24. range
  25. ranging
  26. result
  27. ringing
  28. sensitive
  29. sensory
  30. singer
  31. spot
  32. squillo
  33. standard
  34. sweet
  35. target
  36. timbre
  37. vibrations
  38. voice
  39. weaker