Research by Herbst Debunks Long-standing Myth about High-pitched Classical Singing

A long-held belief among voice pedagogues and scientists is that the highest pitches sung by operatic sopranos – like Mozart’s famous “Queen of the Night” aria – are produced in what is called the “whistle” vocal register. Such a “whistle” voice, which is in effect found in the ultrasonic vocalizations of mice and rats, would have to be produced by air oscillations while the vocal folds in the throat remain immobile.

In a current study, Visiting Adjunct Professor of Voice Science Christian T. Herbst, Ph.D., and an international team of researchers clearly refute such a “whistle” phenomenon. Investigating nine highly professional classical sopranos with endoscopic ultra-high-speed video recordings, Herbst and colleagues document vocal fold oscillation and collision at 1,000 to 1,600 repetitions per second, commensurable with the pitches of the sung sounds. The upper range of classical singing is thus produced by the same mechanism as speech and (most) other forms of singing, indubitably showing that the term “whistle register” is a historic misnomer.

A manuscript with the title “Biomechanics of sound production in high-pitched classical singing” was recently published in the Nature Group’s Scientific Reports journal (impact factor 4.6). Visit www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-62598-8 to access online.