Spectral characteristics of three styles of Croatian folk singing

Abstract

This paper examines the differences between three Croatian folk singing styles, namely klapa, ojkanje and tarankanje. In order to factor out singer-specific properties, each of the styles was performed by the same 12 professional male singers. The 36 performances were analysed with a pitch-corrected LTAS (long-term average spectrum) method. After factoring out each singer's average, the 36 LTAS contours were reduced to a 2-dimensional representation in two ways: (1) a principal-component analysis, (2) a graphical plot of spectral slope versus speaker formant strength. Both ways clearly separate the three styles. The spectrum of the klapa style turns out to be similar to that of speech. The ojkanje style shows a high spectral peak around 3.5 kHz, which is implemented by high vocal effort and the articulation of a shouter's formant and can be explained by the desire to be heard across large distances on mountain slopes. The tarankanje style has a very flat spectrum, which is implemented by vocal pressedness and nasality and can be explained by the desire to match the timbral characteristics of the sopile folk instrument.

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